J.D. Vance and the new MAGA Catholicism

The attempted Trump-ification of the Church

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By now you’ve heard that one of the final acts of Pope Francis’ public life was meeting with J.D. Vance, the U.S. vice president and a recent convert to Catholicism. It was a moment heavy with symbolism and portent. Here, on the one hand, was a liberal Pope, one who had openly clashed with conservatives in general and the MAGA movement in particular. There, on the other, was Vance, one of the most vicious MAGA figures, and one who is quick to clothe his ideology in the jargon and symbolism of the Catholic Church. Francis died soon after the meeting, and Vance went on living - at the beginning of what will likely be a long career which may eventually include holding the most powerful temporal office on Earth.

After their meeting, Pope Francis issued a statement which was widely seen as a rebuke to Vance and MAGA. It went like this:

How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants… I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death.

This, to put it lightly, is not how Vance understands Catholicism. And he is not alone. In the United States, Vance is just the most visible example of a new, militant, conservative, Catholicism. Its adherents include many figures who are hardly household names but are thought leaders or influencers on the American right. There is Patrick Deneen, a political theorist; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; MAGA commentator Candace Owens; columnist Ross Douthat; and many more. Even Tucker Carlson is reported to be thinking about giving conversion the old college try.

All of these figures are united in their attempt to drape MAGA politics with a veil of Catholicism. Vance has been at the forefront of these efforts.

Earlier this year, Vance got into a spat with the Vatican about immigration. Invoking the Augustinian concept of ordo amoris - literally “the order of love” - Vance claimed that the idea of a priority of compassion is integral to Catholic thought. The idea of the order of love, he said, means that “you love your family and then you love your neighbour and then you love your community and then you love your fellow citizens and your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritise the rest of the world”. In other words, MAGA - which claims to be prioritizing American citizens by persecuting migrants - is basically blessed ex cathedra.

Mirroring the broader movement, MAGA Catholicism beyond the subject of immigration is a mishmash of cultural grievances. It is starkly traditionalist, advocating for the Latin mass and even the wearing of veils by women. It is radically opposed to what it sees as a movement to the left among the Western church. For Catholicism to adapt to a changing world, MAGA Catholics believe, is to invite irrelevance and death, because liberalism is basically hostile to religion. Instead, MAGA Catholics want to assert traditional hierarchies and ideas around gender and sexuality, while also deprioritizing concern for the poor. Francis - who talked frequently about climate change, capitalism, and gay rights - was anathema to them.

It is easy to see in MAGA Catholicism the same sort of nostalgia and certainty which animates MAGA as a whole, translated into a religious setting. It also appears starkly cynical, with influencers and “thought leaders” jumping to justify every single one of Trump’s policies in Catholic terms. You don’t have to look far to find headlines like “Trump’s tariffs are a beacon of Catholic social teaching”. It’s clear that if MAGA Catholics had their way, American Catholicism would go the way of most white evangelical Protestant churches and become effectively an arm of the broader movement.

Unsurprisingly, this attitude has brought Vance and other MAGA Catholics into conflict with the institutional church. Not only has Pope Francis slapped back, specifically rejecting Vance’s interpretation as ordo armoris, but so has the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the leadership body of American Catholicism. When the conference criticized the Trump administration’s decision to carry out immigration raids in churches and schools, Vance snapped back. The bishops, he claimed, want immigration to continue at high levels so they can receive federal funding to help migrants.

I’m not a Catholic myself, so I can only imagine how the bishops felt being lectured by a political opportunist who only converted to their religion six years ago. But what I do know is that MAGA Catholicism is a new type of American Catholicism which takes a profoundly different approach to politics and culture than the Catholicism of the last sixty or so years. And as it picks a new Pope, the Catholic Church has to decide how to respond to that.