U.S. Vice President JD Vance acknowledged that he could have spoken “more carefully” after suggesting that American bishops were more concerned with receiving federal funding than helping immigrants amid 2025 budget cuts to refugee programs. Speaking on CBS News in January 2025, Vance, a practicing Catholic, said the U.S. bishops had not been good partners “in commonsense immigration enforcement.”
In February 2026, Cardinal Timothy Dolan told EWTN News that the vice president had apologized to him in a private conversation for such remarks. Asked about it in an interview with the Washington Post, Vance said: “I mean, look, sometimes I say things too harshly. I say things too directly.”
He added that he “could have made that comment more carefully without going too hard at church leadership,” and praised the Catholic Church’s charitable work: “I admire the spirit and Christian Charity of the Church. (It) has to minister to everybody whether you’re a prisoner who’s committed a crime, or whether you’re an illegal immigrant who’s coming to the country illegally. I also recognize that I have a different job, and my job is to make sure that the American people are as safe and prosperous as they can be.”
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