GOOD LORD

JD Vance Faces the Ultimate Clapback From Pope Leo

The pontiff reminds the vice president who has the power to control the Catholic Church’s guidelines.

Pope Leo XIV is gearing up to write new guidelines on when Christians can justify war after JD Vance suggested he was better suited to discuss the topic than the pontiff.

Pope Leo, who has been targeted by the vice president and President Donald Trump for condemning the deeply unpopular Iran conflict, will hold a secret meeting with the world’s cardinals on Friday to discuss whether the “just war” theory needs updating in an era of drones, cyber warfare, and nuclear weapons, according to Politico.

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In April, the pope cited the doctrine established by St. Augustine in the fifth century to condemn the war in Iran, noting that disciples of Christ are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

Days later, at a Turning Point USA event in Georgia, Vance—who converted to Catholicism in 2019 at age 35—began feuding with the pope and suggested he should be “careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

“If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful, you’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth,” Vance added.

In response, Bishop James Massa, one of America’s leading Catholic bishops, issued a scathing statement condemning Vance’s remarks, adding that the Catholic Church has taught for “thousands of years” that wars can be justified “in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.”

Pope Leo has already suggested that the just war doctrine may need to be revised to reflect the modern world. The pope is also reportedly concerned about how the doctrine, in its current form, is being used by world leaders to justify their wars.

Writing last month in an encyclical—an official papal letter outlining the church’s position on a key issue—Pope Leo argued that a doctrine “which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated.”

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Speaking to reporters aboard a flight to Madrid in June, Pope Leo said the problem with the just war theory is that it was “developed in an era when no one could have imagined the weapons we have today or humanity’s capacity for destruction.”

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Francesco Sisci, director of the Rome-based Appia Institute think tank, added that any changes put in place by Pope Leo to the centuries-old doctrine following Friday’s meeting of cardinals would be a powerful statement from the pontiff.

However, he also believes some cardinals may push to keep it as it is.

“It’s messy,” Sisci told Politico. “If JD Vance and [tech billionaire] Peter Thiel are claiming Iran is a just war, maybe it’s because there are priests who are lending them credence.”

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