Vice President JD Vance privately apologized to a leading Catholic cardinal after publicly accusing American bishops of benefiting financially from immigration, according to new details that highlight a sharp contrast between his public statements and private acknowledgments.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the former Archbishop of New York who offered the invocation at both of President Donald Trump’s inaugurations, said in a February 19 interview with EWTN News that Vance sought forgiveness for inflammatory remarks he made shortly after assuming office in January 2025.
“He and I had a little tete-a-tete,” Dolan explained. “And he apologized. He said, ‘That was out of line and that’s not true.'”
The disclosure comes more than a year after Vance stirred controversy by attacking the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for criticizing the Trump administration’s executive order permitting immigration raids at churches and schools. Citing his 2019 conversion to Catholicism, Vance questioned whether the church’s objections were driven by humanitarian concerns or financial motives.
In an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Vance urged the bishops to “look in the mirror” and asked if they were “worried about humanitarian concerns” or “actually worried about their bottom line” given that they receive more than $100 million to assist with refugee resettlement.
Cardinal Dolan sharply criticized those remarks at the time, calling them “scurrilous,” “very nasty,” and “inaccurate.” His recent interview shows that Vance privately admitted he was wrong, though he never issued a public correction.
The private apology contrasts with the vice president’s public stance on immigration enforcement and his readiness to confront religious leaders who oppose administration policies. Vance, who refers to himself as a “baby Catholic,” has cast himself as a defender of traditional Catholic teachings on family and life issues, even as he clashes with church leadership over immigration and refugee programs.
Despite the personal reconciliation, Cardinal Dolan emphasized in his EWTN interview that he remains deeply troubled by various Trump administration initiatives. He said he was “very upset” about the deportation agenda and accused ICE of “going into churches and harassing churches” during his time leading the New York archdiocese.
Dolan said he used his role on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission to address the issue of federal agents appearing at Sunday services. Partnering with fellow commission member Franklin Graham, the evangelical pastor who leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Dolan brought the concerns directly to New York’s ICE field office.
Dolan said the local ICE director reacted favorably: “Thanks for bringing that to my attention. We’re not going to do that here.” He added that he has not heard of agents showing up outside churches since.
The revelation of Vance’s apology comes as tensions between the Trump administration and Catholic leaders continue to rise. Pope Leo XIV, who met with Vance in May 2025, has become an outspoken critic of the administration’s deportation policies. Several high-profile American cardinals, including Blase Cupich of Chicago, Joseph Tobin of Newark, and Robert McElroy of Washington, have publicly defended immigrants and raised concerns about the morality of mass deportations.
In December, Pope Leo XIV replaced Cardinal Dolan as Archbishop of New York with Ronald Hicks, a relatively unknown bishop from Illinois. Dolan, a well-known culture warrior who remains on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, told EWTN that although he has served the administration, he does not support all of the president’s policies.
Dolan said he was not “too happy” with Vance’s lack of support for Ukraine and noted that while he considers the vice president a “very good guy” who aligns with him on “the family,” “babies,” and “patriotism,” they have significant disagreements on other matters.
The disclosures underscore a troubling gap between Vance’s public criticism of religious leaders and his private admission that those criticisms were baseless. Critics have increasingly accused the vice president of using his Catholic identity as a political prop instead of allowing it to meaningfully shape his policy stances.
The National Catholic Reporter has published several opinion pieces denouncing what one editor described as Vance’s “cafeteria Catholicism,” arguing that his selective use of church teaching “must continue to be repudiated by people of faith.”
Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security has responded to Cardinal Dolan’s revelations regarding the vice president’s private apology.
