Catholic convert JD Vance has made yet another gaffe while discussing faith.
The vice president, 41, is being ridiculed online after admitting Wednesday that he did not know who Cardinal Christophe Pierre, a top Vatican diplomat, was.
While speaking with reporters in Hungary, Vance was asked about a Free Press report that top Pentagon brass summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre to a January meeting—then told him the United States has the military power to do “whatever it wants” and that Pope Leo, the first American-born pontiff, “better take its side.”
Vance, for his part, appeared genuinely confused. “With no disrespect to the cardinal, I don’t know who Cardinal Christoph Pierre is,” the vice president said, smiling meekly.
When a reporter clarified that Pierre was Pope Leo XIV’s then-ambassador to the United States, Vance quickly moved to correct himself.
“Oh, okay, okay, I do. I’ve met him before,” Vance, who has frequently touted his midlife conversion to Catholicism, asserted.
“Sorry. I just didn’t remember the name. I’ve never seen this reporting. I’d like to actually talk to Cardinal Christoph Pierre and, frankly, to our people to figure out what actually happened,” he continued. “I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that.”
Within an hour, the clip had spread online and was flooded with mockery.
“Fake Catholic doesn’t remember the Catholic Church ambassador,” one X user who identifies as Andrea wrote. Another replied, “He is such a pathetic loser and calls himself a Catholic. He should be excommunicated.”
Another X user, identifying themselves as “Cothtwit,” pointed to one of Vance’s previous Catholic missteps. “Well, his book made it clear actually he’s a Methodist, so…” they wrote.
Earlier this month, the vice president was mocked for announcing a forthcoming memoir about becoming a Catholic—featuring a United Methodist church on its cover.
Vance announced the 304-page memoir, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, on April 1, posting on X that it captured his “personal journey” to Catholicism after a period of atheism. The photogenic rural church pictured on the cover is actually Mount Zion Church in Elk Creek, Virginia—a congregation of the United Methodist Church’s Holston Conference on Mt. Zion Road, with an average Sunday attendance of 17.
Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019, after being raised in a loosely evangelical, non-denominational tradition and later identifying as an atheist in college.
The vice president, however, is not exactly in the good graces of his faith leaders. Chicago-born Pope Leo has publicly decried Trump and his acolytes—first over their deadly migrant crackdown, their support of Israel during its bombardment of Gaza, and Trump’s war on Iran.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Vance’s representatives for comment.
