Vice President JD Vance will speak at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Friday, just weeks after criticizing the church’s leadership over illegal immigration.
Vance, who is Catholic, criticized the church during his first week in office by saying it receives more than $100 million in federal grants to provide services to migrants and that the church is “worried about their bottom line.”
“I think the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has, frankly, not been a good partner in commonsense immigration enforcement that the American people voted for,” Vance said, “and I hope, again, as a devout Catholic, that they’ll do better.”
Those remarks earned a rebuke from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which said the church spends more money than it receives providing services to migrants and refugees.
“Every person resettled through USRAP is vetted and approved for the program by the federal government while outside of the United States,” the USCCB stated. “In our agreements with the government, the USCCB receives funds to do this work; however, these funds are not sufficient to cover the entire cost of these programs.”
An internal audit of the USCCB performed by professional services firm KPMG found that the USCCB and its affiliates received $129,626,673 in funds from government contracts in 2023 while spending more than $130.5 million on such programs.
Vance’s comments will be closely watched for that reason along with one other.
The event also comes as Pope Francis, 88, is in critical condition due to a lung infection after suffering two falls as the church entered its 2025 Holy Year.
Francis has been a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, saying earlier this month that the Trump administration’s plans to arrest and deport illegal immigrants “will end badly.”
Along with Vance, border czar Tom Homan blasted Francis over the remarks.
“He wants to attack us for securing our border — he’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?” said Homan, who describes himself as a lifelong Catholic. “So, he’s got a wall around to protect his people and himself, but we can’t have a wall around the United States? I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us.”
Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 and now attends Mass along with his wife and three children. He grew up in a family that only sporadically attended church, an experience he recounted in his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
Today, Vance speaks frequently about his faith, and he made a speech to evangelicals just three days after being named as Trump’s running mate.
“Social conservatives have a seat at this table and always will so long as I have any influence in this party,” he said at the event, which was part of the Republican National Convention. “I know that President Trump agrees.”
Vance also attended the Catholic prayer breakfast last year, when he was an Ohio senator.
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The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast begins at 6 a.m. Friday in Washington, with the speaking program beginning at 7.
Previous speakers at the event include former Vice President Mike Pence and former President George W. Bush.