JD Vance is getting a lot of flack from Catholics online for not bowing down and kissing the Ring of the Fisherman, worn by Pope Leo XIV, when they met recently. He didn’t get any flack for not doing this with Pope Francis just a few weeks ago because Francis was known for withdrawing his hand and even slapping away people trying to give him this traditional sign of respect.

In an interview with Ross Douthat of the New York Times, Vance explained that he wasn’t at the pope’s inaugural Mass as “a Catholic parishioner” but as the vice president of the United States representing the president’s delegation to the inaugural mass. John F. Kennedy and Joe Biden, Catholic presidents, also did not kiss the pope’s ring when they had a chance to do so, although some American Catholic mayors or other political figures have done so. Other royal figures or heads of state, like the Polish president, did kneel and kiss the ring.

Vance was acting in the traditions of the United States. Our chief executives do not make gestures of submission or fealty to other foreign dignitaries.

Does this impeach his Catholicism? I don’t think so at all. Some Catholics are citing church documents condemning those who respect Catholic teaching and practice in their private life, but not as public servants, or that Vance is falsely positing a conflict between his American identity and Catholic identity. That’s not what’s happening here. He is merely taking on his office’s traditions in what is a diplomatic setting. He commits no sin by doing so. Just as it would not be an impeachment of a father, who, acting as his son’s attorney, spoke about him before the bench and jury in a way that would be unbecoming of a father who is merely speaking about his son in another setting, but is appropriate for a legal advocate. He isn’t in any way denying his paternal role, he is merely acting in another one.