Stephen Colbert had harsh words for JD Vance after the vice president tried to lecture the pope on Catholic theology.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019 at the age of 35, lent some advice to Pope Leo XIV while speaking at a Turning Point USA event in Georgia.
His words followed President Donald Trump’s attack on the pontiff for speaking out against his war in Iran and calling for peace.
“In the same way that it’s important for the vice president of the United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy, I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance told the crowd.
Colbert, himself a Catholic, unleashed on the vice president with some advice of his own.
“Hey, JD! I know you’re Catholic, but you joined in 2019. OK. I’ve been genuflecting since the mid-1960s!” the late-night host, 61, said.
“I got something to say!” he continued.
“I think you’re out over your Catholic skis here. OK. I think it’s time for you to sit down. Then stand back up. Then kneel,” he said. “Then stand again. Then shake hands with people around you. Then kneel a little more. Then go take communion.”
“And then go back to your pew for some more kneeling. Because you’re not sneaking out of here after communion. Because you know who left the last supper early? Judas!” he concluded passionately, drawing cheers from the audience.
The Daily Beast has contacted Vance for comment.
Colbert is open about his faith and spiritual devotion, and has described his upbringing as “very Catholic.”
Vance has written about his faith journey, revealing his motivations for converting to Catholicism in a 2020 essay in The Lamp. “I try to keep a little humility about how little I know, and how inadequate a Christian I really am,” he wrote at the time.
“But the Church isn’t just about ideas and Saint Augustine, whom I chose as my patron. It’s about the heart, as well, and the community of believers. It’s about going to Mass and receiving the Sacraments, even when it’s difficult or awkward to do so,” he continued. “It’s about so many things that I’m ignorant of, and the process of becoming less ignorant over time.”
The frictions between Trump and the pope came to the fore when the president lambasted the pontiff in a lengthy Truth Social rant after the head of the Catholic Church expressed concern over the war in Iran.
Leo had said that the conflict was “a war which many people have said is unjust.”
“God does not bless any conflict,” the Chicago-born pontiff wrote on X. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Trump followed up his attack by posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus—a move which angered swathes of his MAGA base and led the president to delete it and claim he thought the picture portrayed him as a doctor.
Trump later posted another doctored image showing Jesus with his arm around him, alongside a caption saying, “God might be playing his Trump card!”
Vance defended Trump while speaking to Fox News on Monday. “It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” he said.
