The entrance of JD Vance as the Republican vice-presidential contender reflects a new breed of Catholic convert that is reshaping Republican politics, Matthew Schmitz, a founder and editor of the online magazine Compact, writes in an opinion piece in the New York Times (August 14). Vance, who converted to Catholicism after attending Yale Law School, joins a wave of recent converts who are challenging Republican politics, often seeking to apply Catholic social teachings to society. They include the legal scholars Erika Bachiochi and Adrian Vermeule, the political scientist Darel Paul, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, editor Sohrab Ahmari, and Schmitz himself. While they may disagree on some points (including support of Donald Trump or the merits of populism), these converts share a social conservatism and a willingness to criticize the “free-market orthodoxies of the pre-Trump Republican Party.” Catholic social teachings on the economy and on family and life issues, such as abortion, inform their views. For instance, Vance has said that his “views on public policy and what the optimal state should look like are pretty aligned with Catholic social teaching.”
J. D. Vance (source: Gage Skidmore | Flickr, 2023).
Schmitz notes that the newer converts’ views clash with those of Catholic conservatives and neoconservatives of only a generation ago, such as Wiliam F. Buckley and Michael Novak, who stressed the virtues of the free market and the liberal political system, mostly as a response to Soviet Communism. Today, Catholicism is seen as providing resources for “pushing back against the excesses of cultural and economic liberalism,” Schmitz writes. The new interest in Catholic social thought on the right may lie behind conservatives’ tentative moves toward labor activism, with a Teamster representative being included among the speakers at July’s Republican convention. The infusion of Catholic influence, however, is also adding to tensions as Republicans, including Trump, are moving away from life issues, such as pro-life and anti-IVF activism and concerns. Schmitz adds that these converts’ introduction of Catholic social teaching may have limited influence because of the diminishing institutional weight of the Catholic Church, including its loss of membership, no longer having strong Catholic labor unions, youth groups, and voting blocs to support such a vision. While Catholic social teaching “may still inspire influential actors like Mr. Vance…they will be constrained by an unchurched public’s limited appetite for Catholic ideas.”
