A leading Catholic newspaper is publicly taking on one of the church's most prominent political converts. In an opinion piece published on Thursday, John Grosso, the digital editor for the National Catholic Reporter, accused Vice President JD Vance of distorting Christian teaching in his response to Wednesday's fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minnesota, reports HuffPost. Vance had described Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, as "a deranged leftist" and part of a coordinated effort to target immigration agents, writing on X that the "tragedy" of her death was her fault and that of "radicals" who encourage resistance to immigration enforcement.
Video of the encounter shows ICE officers surrounding Good's SUV, one tugging at her door before she reverses, turns the wheels, and pulls forward as an officer opens fire. A New York Times analysis found that the officer, identified as Jonathan Ross, wasn't in the vehicle's path when he shot. Despite that, Vance and other Trump administration officials have framed the episode as self-defense and accused Good of "violently" running over the officer; footage doesn't show him being knocked down.
Grosso wrote that Vance "knows better" as a Catholic than to engage in "gaslighting and agitation," calling his comments "a moral stain" on the church's public witness and saying his Catholicism appears to function as a political instrument. Vance's views on immigration and theology have already drawn criticism from Catholic leaders, including the late Pope Francis, who rejected Vance's use of the concept of "order of love" to justify prioritizing nonimmigrants and denounced harsh deportation policies as denying migrants' dignity. When he was still a cardinal, Pope Leo also shared an opinion piece taking Vance to task. Grosso isn't the only Catholic taking issue with Vance's rhetoric.
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