jd vance at a stand at a rally
(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

JD Vance crosses a picket line to say he thinks Kamala Harris has it out for Catholics

Look! JD Vance is out here being gross again. One of the unions at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has been on strike for over a year and Vance decided to cross the picket line to write an opinion piece for the outlet. And that piece is…frustrating.

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The piece itself is all about how Harris, in his opinion, hates Catholics. He is very clearly using the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a strategic move, considering how many of Western Pennsylvania’s voters are Catholic themselves. I would know, I grew up the granddaughter of two Catholic households and had to go to many of my friend’s communions.

What the piece boils down to is Vance angry that Harris was demanding the Catholic church play a part in equality. He cited things like bills from 2019 that required the church hospital to perform abortions and gender reaffirming surgeries. Vance also said that Harris pushed for the Catholic church to host same-sex marriages. All of those are good things. Vance was converted to Catholicism and as someone who grew up directly connected to it, I do think he needs to shut up.

His reasoning for the piece seems to be rooted in thinking that Catholics are some kind of minority. “It’s an absurd double standard. While this administration has been busy targeting suburban Catholic dads, it has essentially ignored the nearly 300 attacks on Catholic churches since the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision in 2022,” Vance wrote.

Look, maybe I’m warped because I grew up with Catholicism at every turn but I do think acting like being Catholic makes you a protected individual is unhinged. We are actually a dime a dozen. But Vance’s continued attack on Harris is unfortunately not anything new.

Odd that he conveniently left out the BAD aspects of the Catholic church

When you grow up as an Italian/Scottish young woman, you have to know that Catholicism is present. My grandparents went to church every single Sunday. Luckily, my mother decided her children could choose what they wanted and while I got roped into church more often than not, I did not have as much of the Catholic guilt that is built into many others. It has meant that I often look critically at those who just trust and believe everything the church represents without pause.

The 2015 movie Spotlight highlighted a very real and important part of the current Catholic church. It is consistently behind the times when it comes to inclusion and acceptance and yet there are multiple cases against the Catholic Church with allegations of sexual abuse towards children. But we’re supposed to ignore that like good Catholics, right?

That’s what is so funny to me about Vance’s piece. He’s acting as if those who oppose the Catholic church have some kind of prejudice against Catholicism. That’s far from the truth. The entire article (which makes him a scab) reads like a man angry that a woman didn’t want to go to confession with him. At the end, he writes “Only by rejecting her record of anti-Catholic bias will we ensure religious liberty for all.”

Bro, it is literally not that serious. Joe Biden, the current President and her running mate during the 2020 election, IS CATHOLIC. BORN AND RAISED. You trying this desperate attempt to get her hated by PA Catholics is…pathetic.

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Rachel Leishman
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.