Vice President JD Vance said Monday that Pope Leo XIV should focus on moral issues rather than political disputes as tensions arose between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church after President Donald Trump publicly rebuked the pope over the pontiff’s criticism of the Iran war.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, made the remarks during an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier and backed Trump’s response to Leo, who has condemned the conflict and warned against further escalation, with the vice president saying it is reasonable for Trump to disagree when the Vatican comments on American public policy.