Vance Brushes Off Apparent Pope Leo Xiv Criticism: ‘i Try Not To Play The Politicization Of The Pope Game’

U.S. Vice President JD Vance brushed off apparent criticism from Pope Leo XIV — formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost — downplaying any entanglement between the Catholic Church’s leader and modern American politics.

After the white smoke on Thursday, a social media account with Prevost’s name lambasting the Trump administration’s immigration policy and directly calling out Vance exploded online. And while some MAGA influencers and Trump loyalists blasted Leo on social media — Steve Bannon called Leo the “worst pick for MAGA Catholics” — Vance, who is Catholic, did not engage.

“I try not to play the politicization of the Pope game,” Vance told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday. “I’m sure he’s going to say a lot of things that I love. I’m sure he’ll say some things that I disagree with, but I’ll continue to pray for him and the Church despite it all and through it all.”

The vice president added the church is “bigger than politics,” while not directly addressing the comments made by the account. POLITICO has not been able to independently confirm the authenticity of the Prevost account. The Vatican press office, the Vatican’s embassy to the U.S., the Midwest Augustinians and the dioceses in Chicago and Peru did not respond to questions.

“And my attitude is, you know, the Church is about saving souls, and about spreading the Gospel,” Vance said. “And yeah, it’s going to touch public policy from time to time as all human institutions do, but that’s not really what it’s about.”

The Trump administration has elevated Christian and Catholic leaders during his second term, signing orders to end “anti-Christian weaponization” in the government and loading his Cabinet with Catholics. But Vance had also faced criticism from the late Pope Francis on the administration’s hard-line immigration policies.

His brief row with Pope Francis came after the pontiff sent a letter to U.S. bishops decrying mass deportations. Vance has justified the policy through the idea of ordo amoris, or “order of love,” which ranks or prioritizes love and duty.

“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’” Francis wrote in his letter.

At a national prayer breakfast in February, Vance said the immigration policies will best serve the American people, and that he would not “litigate with him or any other clergy member” on the subject.

Francis was known for his more pro-immigrant ideals — which some claim that Leo seems to share.

The social media account bearing his name re-posted an op-ed by auxiliary Catholic Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala of Washington, D.C., on the suffering of the Venezuelan immigrants deported by the Trump administration. Another re-post was of an opinion piece from the liberal-leaning National Catholic Reporter, entitled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

But Vance said the papacy should not be viewed solely through the lens of American politics.

“Most of the people are not thinking about whether the pope is a Republican or a Democrat, or a conservative or a liberal,” Vance said.

Vance, however, did have one notable split with Leo: baseball. Vance, a Cincinnati Reds fan, joked how the pope’s affinity for Chicago baseball set him up well for his role leading the church.

“I had a friend of mine that had a pretty funny take on this. He said, ‘if Pope Leo really is a Chicago White Sox fan, then he’s already actually faced the stress of martyrdom multiple times,’ so maybe we have a real winner in the new Holy Father,” Vance concluded.