Ayvaz Çolakoğlu
Date: 16 April 2026
Last Updated: 16 April 2026
AA/Ankara
Vice President JD Vance has urged Pope Leon XIV to “be very careful” when speaking on theological matters, while President Donald Trump continues his direct attacks on the pontiff.
In a speech at a Turning Point USA event, JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, criticized the pope for stating that “God is never on the side of those who wield the sword,” a position Vance finds incompatible with the doctrine of “just war.”
“It is very, very important for the Pope to be careful when speaking on theological matters,” he said, correcting the head of the Catholic Church on his own doctrine.
These remarks come after Pope Leon XIV strongly criticized American threats against Iran, calling the idea of “civilization” destruction “really unacceptable” and denouncing attacks on civilian infrastructure. The pontiff also canceled a planned visit to Washington.
This stance by the American administration prompted a rare and firm response from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who expressed solidarity with Pope Leon XIV, stating that she would not feel comfortable in a society where religious leaders should obey the injunctions of political leaders.
She considered Trump’s remarks towards the pope as “unacceptable.”
Ségolène Royal, the former French presidential candidate, summarized in a message shared on the American social network X, the reasons for her hostility.
“Donald Trump insults the pope because he opposes the power of peace to the endless madness of war and hatred, because he canceled his visit to the United States, and above all because he refuses to let Trump’s declaration that he is waging war in the name of God pass,” she wrote.
For many observers and social media users, this sequence reveals “arrogance” from both American leaders who position themselves as dispensers of theological lessons to the moral authority of over a billion Catholics worldwide.
Furthermore, this confrontation highlights a major cultural and theological divide between American evangelical Protestantism and Catholicism.
The former, highly influential in Trump’s circle, rejects any central authority. Every believer, and even more so a political leader who claims to be Christian, can freely interpret the Bible and consider themselves a direct instrument of divine will.
In this tradition, war is sometimes seen as a providential mission or a national crusade blessed by God.
On the contrary, in Catholicism, theology is based on Scripture, Tradition, and the official teaching of the Church. The doctrine of “just war” does exist, but it is strictly regulated. It emphasizes that God rejects war and that His name cannot justify violence.
Research by French specialists Sébastien Fath and Sébastien Boussois, as well as the work of American Matthew Taylor, document the “theological divide” between the institutional framework of Catholicism and the lack of central authority in evangelical Protestantism.
This statement comes after rare and harsh attacks from Donald Trump. The American president described the pontiff as “weak in the face of crime” and “catastrophic in foreign policy,” even going so far as to share an image of him as a Christ-like figure before withdrawing it amid general outrage.
In response, Pope Leon XIV stated that he is “not afraid of the Trump administration,” claiming an evangelical line of peace and rejecting the instrumentalization of faith by political power.
While the Vatican has not officially responded to JD Vance’s recent remarks, the gap between the pontifical message and Trump’s warlike rhetoric now seems wide.
This showdown is causing fractures even within the president’s base, where some faithful denounce the remarks as “sacrilegious”: “You are not God, this goes too far,” they reacted.
(Note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Anadolu)
