Vance's 'Communion' Fails as Spiritual Memoir and Reveals a Politics Detached from Catholic Social Teaching
Source: Scott D. Moringiello. "The Gospel According to J. D. Vance." October 10, 2026. jacobin.com
The Gist
The author argues that Vance's new book is billed as a spiritual memoir but says little about his faith and mostly offers complaints and vague policy ideas. He says Vance praises Catholic social teaching while his political record, on unions, immigration, and honesty, goes against it. The author concludes that Vance is a hypocrite and that his writing has become duller and less honest than before.
Conclusion
J. D. Vance's memoir Communion fails as a spiritual and intellectual account of his Catholic conversion, and his political record shows hypocrisy toward the Catholic social teaching he professes to admire; he is now more comfortable with boredom and dishonesty than he was in earlier work.
Premises
- Only 24 of the book's 288 pages address his conversion, and the intellectual engagement with theologians and philosophers (Augustine, Aquinas, Chesterton, Tolkien) is limited to a few quotations, so it barely functions as a spiritual memoir.
- A sitting vice president and former senator can reasonably be expected to explain concretely how Catholicism has shaped his political views and votes, and Communion does not do so.
- Vance cites Rerum Novarum and asks what a Christian approach to economics would look like, but offers no sustained policy proposals consistent with the Catholic tradition, such as on regulating social media or supporting labor unions.
- Vance's political record conflicts with Catholic social teaching: he cited tax cuts as the Trump administration's Christian policy, has done nothing to strengthen unions, and serves in an administration whose immigration enforcement and military actions conflict with human dignity.
- The Catholic tradition holds that truth-telling and love are central and that the social order must meet people's material needs, yet Vance has a record of dishonesty, including his comments on Haitian immigrants and the Washington Post's finding that he lied about the timing of his embrace of Trump.
- Vance's earlier work (Hillbilly Elegy, the 2020 Lamp essay) made real arguments and engaged with reality, while Communion is platitudinous.
Assumptions
- Public figures who profess a religious tradition are obligated to show how it shapes their political decisions.
- Catholic social teaching, especially Rerum Novarum, clearly implies pro-union, pro-immigrant, and pro-regulatory policies that Vance's record contradicts.
- The actions of the Trump administration can be attributed to Vance and used to evaluate his sincerity.
- A memoir's quality can be judged by its theological depth and policy specificity, even if the author never claimed to be a theologian.
- Past dishonest statements are relevant evidence about the sincerity of his current religious claims.
- Catholic teaching is not compatible with a tax-cut-focused or restrictionist immigration approach.