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Vice President JD Vance opens up about his Catholic faith and relationship with God: 'I felt at home'

Vice President JD Vance spoke about what drew him into the Catholic church on his journey to rediscover faith on "Jesse Watters Primetime."

Published June 14, 2026, 1:00 PM
Updated June 14, 2026, 1:10 PM3.1K
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Vice President JD Vance opens up about his Catholic faith and relationship with God: 'I felt at home'

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Vice President JD Vance says the Catholic faith feels "like home" as he remembers his journey to find the Lord in his new book "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith." 

The vice president opened up to "Jesse Watters Primetime" recently about his book, which is set for release on June 16 and details his "long and winding road" to find faith in God after feeling he "lost it" as a young man. Before finding Christ, Vance described feeling like the "American elite culture" was telling him to not focus on the "things that mattered." 

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Pope Leo XIV holds a private audience with US Vice President J.D. Vance at the Apostolic Palace on May 19, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican.

 Pope Leo XIV holds a private audience with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Apostolic Palace on May 19, 2025, in Vatican City, Vatican. (Simone Risoluti Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)

"It was forming me to be the kind of person who focused way too much on what kind of school I went to, on how much money I made, on what kind of job I (had). I was way too focused on prestige and not enough on the things that mattered," he recalled. 

When Vance became a husband and a father, everything changed.  

"I married this girl who I'd fallen in love with, and I became a father for the first time," he said. "I was thinking about much more important things — like how to be a good person, how to be virtuous, how to be a good and supportive husband, how to raise this son to be a good man himself — and the more that I thought about these bigger, more important questions, the more that that drew me back to my faith." 

Vance, who credited his grandmother for originally planting a "seed" of faith in him as a young boy, recognized he needed a "good old-fashioned faith foundation." Then, he turned to the church. 

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Second lady Usha Vance and U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrive for a military mothers celebration in the East Room of the White House on May 6, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Second lady Usha Vance and U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrive for a military mothers celebration in the East Room of the White House on May 6, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"It felt like the world was changing so fast and what I loved about Catholicism is you had this beautiful ancient church and you had all of these traditions that were very firmly rooted, some of which went back literally thousands of years," Vance told Fox News. "I just really loved that sense of tradition ... When I went to a Catholic Church, I felt at home." 

Second lady Usha Vance was very supportive of her husband’s journey, though the couple has differing faith beliefs. 

"Despite the fact that Usha herself was not raised Christian, she was one of the people who really encouraged me to go down this faith journey, rediscover my own faith, and of course, she's there with me every Sunday in church," he shared.  

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US Vice President JD Vance speaks at the 20th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, February 28, 2025.

US Vice President JD Vance speaks at the 20th annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, February 28, 2025. (TING SHEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Usha Vance told him she felt the act of converting and thinking about God and the Christian life made him a "better person." 

"It's definitely dynamic to have a Hindu, a Catholic father, two Catholic kids, and one four-year-old girl who hasn't figured it out yet, but I wouldn't take it any other way," the vice president said. "I do think that God has plans for all of us, and I think that this is God's way of speaking to us and encouraging our kids to find Him through their own particular journey." 

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