{"id":91007,"date":"2026-04-15T16:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/vice-president-vance-to-pope-leo-how-can-you-say-god-is-never-on-the-side-of-those-who-wield-the-sword\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:44:11","slug":"vice-president-vance-to-pope-leo-how-can-you-say-god-is-never-on-the-side-of-those-who-wield-the-sword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/vice-president-vance-to-pope-leo-how-can-you-say-god-is-never-on-the-side-of-those-who-wield-the-sword\/","title":{"rendered":"Vice President Vance to Pope Leo: “How Can You Say God Is Never On The Side Of Those Who Wield The Sword?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vice President J.D. Vance answered a question about the president’s verbal feud with the Pope and faced a heckler shouting about U.S. support for “genocide in Gaza” during a TPUSA event at UGA on Tuesday night “I like it when the Pope talks about matters of war and peace because I think that, at the very least, it invites a conversation,” Vance said. “But related to this conflict in Iran, he said: God is never on the side of those who wield the sword.” The Pope’s exact statement was pretty close to that<\/a>: “God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” “How can you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and freed those innocent people?” the vice president said. At this point, a heckler shouted: “Jesus Chris doesn’t support genocide.” “I agree-Jesus Christ certainly does not support genocide, whoever yelled that out,” Vance continued. “When the Pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword, there is a more than a thousand-year tradition of just war theory.” “Of course, we can have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just. But in the same way it’s important for the vice president to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy-I think that it’s very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” Addressing the heckler, who continued to shout about U.S. support for Israel, Vance said: “When we came in, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was an absolute catastrophe. You know who got a peace agreement in Gaza? Donald Trump.” “If you want to complain about what happened in Gaza, why don’t you complain about Joe Biden and the last administration? We’re the administration that solved that problem,” he said. “Right now you see more humanitarian aid coming into Gaza than at any time in the past five years, because we have taken that situation seriously.” <\/p>\n

VICE PRESIDENT J.D. VANCE: I like it when the Pope talks about matters of war and peace because I think that, at the very least, it invites a conversation. I think some people’s reaction is to say, Well, he shouldn’t have said that. And look, there are certainly things the Pope has said in the last few months that I disagree with. Let me take one very concrete example related to this conflict in Iran. The Pope said something-I’m going to try to remember the exact quote-but he said “God is never on the side of those who wield the sword.” I’m pretty sure he said that exact statement. Now, on the one hand, I like that the Pope is an advocate for peace. I think that’s certainly one of his roles. On the other hand, how can you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps and freed those innocent people? I certainly think the answer is yes. HECKLER: Jesus Christ doesn’t support genocide. J.D. VANCE: I agree-Jesus Christ certainly does not support genocide, whoever yelled that out from the back, he certainly does not. I think that’s a pretty easy principle. HECKLER: [Inaudible] VANCE: Now, first of all-random dude who’s shouting-can I finish my point, and then I’ll respond to what you just shouted? Is that okay? Okay, great. Let me just finish this question on the Pope, and then I want to respond to what this guy said. When the Pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword, there is a thousand-year-more than a thousand-year-tradition of just war theory. We can, of course, have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just. But I think it’s important-in the same way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy-I think that it’s very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology. One of these issues here — HECKLER: [Inaudible] VANCE: If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth. That’s something I try to do, and it’s certainly something I would expect from the clergy, whether they’re Catholic or Protestant. Now, to respond to this guy here-he said, I believe, that the administration supports a genocide in Gaza. Here’s my response to that. When we came in, the humanitarian situation in Gaza was an absolute catastrophe. You know who got a peace agreement in Gaza? Donald Trump. So if you want to complain about what happened in Gaza, why don’t you complain about Joe Biden and the last administration? We’re the administration that solved that problem. And by the way, not only was our administration the one that solved the problem, but– HECKLER: You’re killing children. Right now, you are slaughtering children. VANCE: Right now, you see more humanitarian aid coming into Gaza than at any time in the past five years, because we have taken that situation seriously. That’s one of the things I’m proud of about our administration. Whether it’s there or in Thailand and Cambodia, we have consistently tried, as much as we can, to solve these problems-not just complain about them like the guy who just ran away angry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

RealClearPolitics Videos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vice President J.D. Vance answered a question about the president’s verbal feud with the Pope and faced a heckler shouting about U.S. support for “genocide in Gaza” during a TPUSA event at UGA on Tuesday night “I like it when the Pope talks about matters of war and peace because I think that, at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[910,687,2635,3457,318,4814,22219,4597,14825],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}