US6 min(s) read
Published 16:27 17 Jun 2026 GMT
US Vice President JD Vance has made several groundbreaking revelations about his own life, as part of his new book, titled Communion.
It is the follow-up to the 2016 release, Hillbilly Elegy, which made its way onto the New York Times bestseller list and was the basis of a Ron Howard-directed Netflix movie, which earned two Oscar nominations.
Vance's latest release focuses on his conversion to Catholicism instead of his early life, which comes amidst the drama surrounding the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran.
The 41-year-old no doubt has copious amounts of material to write about since he has moved from becoming an author to becoming the right-hand man of the US President, but it is said that he does not give the people what they want.
The book reportedly contains nothing about a potential candidacy in the 2028 election or anything mind-blowing about Trump's time in office, but Vance did make several bold claims.
The Vice President took the book as an opportunity to address one of his most scrutinized statements, which has to do with "childless cat ladies."
Vance first uttered the term while running for US Senate in Ohio, going as far as saying that these women were "miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too."
Democrats didn't take kindly to this generalization, though Vance said in his new book that it was “one of the dumbest things I ever said.”
He went as far as describing it as "boneheaded," claiming that his actual point was that Americans have become "pathologically hostile to having kids."
But when the comment resurfaced after he was named as Trump's prospective Vice President, he told NBC’s Meet the Press: “I have a lot of regrets, but making a joke three years ago is not at the top 10 of the list.”
However, he did say that it was a "dumb" comment in a New York Times interview later that year, writing in his book as a Christian statesman: “It’s ok to admit error.”
Trump's extreme crackdown on the Vatican has resulted in backlash from religious leaders such as the Pope, putting Vance, a devout Catholic, in a sticky situation.
Yet, the Vice President mentions his April 2025 visit to the Vatican in his new book, despite Pope Francis' criticism of the Trump Administration.
When he met with Vatican officials, Vance said the conversation was "unsettling," as he felt they were not direct enough.
In fact, he claimed they didn't specify the policies they disagreed with, writing: “Here I was, the most senior Catholic in the United States government, and the Vatican seemed unwilling to move its moral guidance past the point of trite platitudes.
“I was struck that one of the few institutions with the moral authority and global perspective to address the migration question seemed so afraid of saying something controversial that it chose, effectively, to say nothing at all,” Vance claimed.
He still spent his Easter morning with Pope Francis though, who was unwell but asked to meet Vance, as he recalled the 10-minute meeting.
He wrote: "We had different jobs, and I preferred his specific exhortations to the vagueness I had encountered during our Vatican meeting,
“Better to have an honest conversation than one masked by clichés.”
Vance became one of the last people to see Pope Francis before he passed away.
The Trump administration has left conservative crowds frustrated, as they looked to cut down on abortions in the US, though the President has avoided the topic up to the midterms.
He has allowed states to decide how to regulate this, but Vance believes there is a third option.
The Vice President claims that improving conditions for mothers, children and families can lead to less women choosing to get an abortion.
Vance wrote in his new book: “When having babies is a drag on economic activity, the economic gods favor terminating pregnancies,
"And of course, it’s not just the act of having children that we ought to be concerned about: It’s spending time with them as well.”
He wrote about the 2023 Ohio ballot referendum, which saw abortion rights upheld in a red state, claiming it is a sign that women will reject attempts to eliminate “the last option they thought they had left.”
He claimed: “That’s why we lost the Ohio referendum, but it’s also how we’ll start winning people over: by reflecting Christian charity in the way we champion the unborn.”
Vance continued to link the subject to Catholicism, adding: “To me, Christians cared about abortion (bad) and marriage (good), but their politics seemed so disconnected from the real lives of most people.”
He asked: "What would a Christian approach not just to marriage and family, but to economics in the modern era look like?"
Vance highlights the importance of his wife Usha, who is Hindu, throughout the book.
“There is at least a little irony in the fact that my non-Christian wife helped lead me back to my own Christian faith, and then made it possible for me to discuss the journey on paper,” he penned.
The Vice President said that the mother of his children is his most honest editor and will have a say in whether or not he decides to campaign for President in 2028.
Vance previously told a college audience that he hoped his wife would convert to Christianity, but soon said that his wife has "no plans" to do so.
He did add: "Like many people in an interfaith marriage - or any interfaith relationship - I hope she may one day see things as I do.”
The pair decided to raise their kids Catholic, though they can decide if they want to be baptized.
