The Catholicism of J.D. Vance

The Catholic Thing

By Fr. Raymond J. de Souza Vice-Presidential candidate J.D. Vance is a convert. To Catholicism in 2019. And to Trumpism sometime between his Never Trump position of 2016 and the 2021 launch of his campaign for the Senate. He is happy as a Catholic and tickled red to be Trump's most devout, intelligent, and articulate apologist in the Senate. Much has been written about the conversion to Trumpism, including a sympathetic 2022 account in the Washington Post Magazine. Vance has adopted not only Trump's policies but also his style of politics. Within two hours of the assassination attempt, before the shooter was known, Vance tweeted that the Biden campaign's "rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination." Less than 48 hours later, he was Trump's vice-presidential nominee. The speed and intensity of Vance's conversion to Trump invites the conclusion that he is an unprincipled opportunist. But others have changed their views. Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush both changed their views on abortion, and Reagan himself switched from Democrat to Republican. Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden changed positions on abortion too, in the other direction. And Biden on same-sex marriage. So the mere fact of a political conversion does not necessarily demonstrate opportunism. Vance's Catholicism has drawn less attention, but he himself has written nearly 7,000 words explaining it in The Lamp under the curious title "How I Joined the Resistance." Resistance to what? Chesterton would have said to sin. Vance agrees with that, but the reader suspects that "resistance" also includes a political dimension. "My friend Oren Cass published a book arguing that American policymakers have focused far too much on promoting consumption as opposed to productivity, or some other measure of wellbeing," wrote Vance. "And indeed, it was this insight, more than any other, that ultimately led not just to Christianity, but to Catholicism." "I slowly began to see Catholicism as the closest expression of [my grandmother's kind] of Christianity," Vance continued. "Obsessed with virtue, but cognizant of the fact that virtue is formed in the context of a broader community; sympathetic with the meek and poor of the world without treating them primarily as victims; protective of children and families and with the things necessary to ensure they thrive. And above all: a faith centered around a Christ who demands perfection of us even as He loves unconditionally and forgives easily." Souls start down the path to the Catholic Church from varied departure points. For the superlative theological mind of Avery Dulles, it was actually contemplating a new bud on a tree. For Vance it was a public policy insight that per capita GDP was not the only measure of the common good. Catholic promoters of economic liberty - Michael Novak comes to mind - agreed with that too. Vance argues that Catholic social teaching points to a politics that is willing to intervene in the economy to promote the economic and social well-being of the working class. "There's an entire Christian moral and economic worldview that is completely cut out of modern American politics, and I think it's important to try to bring that back," Vance told Matthew Schmitz for a First Things profile. "The core Christian insight into politics is that life is inherently dignified and valuable. If you actually believe that, you want certain legal protections for the most vulnerable people in your society, but you also want to ensure that workers get a fair wage when they do a fair job." Vance argues, on Catholic grounds, for a progressive economic policy that has deep roots in American Catholicism, perhaps exemplified best by Msgr. John A. Ryan in the first half of the twentieth century. "Vance has become one of the leading political avatars of an emergent populist-intellectual persuasion that tacks right on culture and left on economics," said that Washington Post profile. "Known as national conservatism or s...