In a recent address at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Vice President JD Vance expressed his thoughts about Trump’s recent actions and his faith. Vance recently converted to the Catholic Church, and often cites his faith. While this is not the first time Vance has spoken about his faith, it is one of the more personal speeches he’s made.
“We have turned a new page in Washington, D.C. and we are going to take advantage of the opportunity that God has given us,” Vance began. “President Trump, though not a Catholic himself, has been an incredibly good president for Catholics in the United States of America.” The VP says Trump’s foreign policy is the “most in accord with Christian social teaching and with the Catholic faith.”
“More than any president of my lifetime, President Trump has pursued a path of peace,” JD Vance said. “We very often, I think, ignore the way in which our foreign policy is either an instrument or an impediment to people all over the world being able to practice their faith. The Trump administration promises you whether it’s here at home with our own citizens or all over the world, we will be the biggest defenders of religious liberty and the rights of conscience,” he said.
“It’s not enough simply to protect the rights of conscience, to pursue funding opportunities and grant-making opportunities to protect the rights of people to engage in religious conscience.”He added that “the biggest impediments to religious liberty have not come through malice from the United States government but have actually come through carelessness.”
“In the United States of America sometimes, it is our foreign misadventures that lead to the eradication of historical Christian communities all over the world,” he explained.”When President Trump talks about the need to bring peace, whether it’s in Russia and Ukraine, whether it’s in the Middle East, we, of course, have to recognize that as a policy-oriented towards saving lives and carrying out one of Christ’s most important commandments.”
Vance reaffirmed his commitment to “an effort to protect the religious liberty of Christians because over the past 40 years, it has often been the historical Christian communities who bear the brunt of failed American foreign policy.” Vance declared, “That is, in my view, perhaps the most important way in which Donald Trump has been a defender of Christian rights all over the world is he has a foreign policy that is oriented towards peace.”
“We will always listen to people of faith and people of conscience in the United States of America,” said Vance, “even and especially maybe when you disagree with us.” He also explained his recent conversion. “What attracted me to the Christian faith and what attracted me to this church in particular is the recognition that grace is not something that happens instantaneously,” he said.
“It’s something that God works in us over a long period of time, sometimes many years and sometimes many decades. I think that when I was a kid, my assumption is that grace is something where the Holy Spirit would come in and it would solve all of our problems,” he concluded. “Grace is very much a process that God works in us over time.[I’m]”as imperfect a Christian as any person in this room, God is transforming me every single day.”