2 hours ago
10
US vice-president JD Vance has announced a new memoir centred on his conversion to Catholicism, adding to mounting speculation about a potential 2028 presidential run.
The book, titled Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, will be published on 16 June by HarperCollins and is described as “a spiritual exploration of what it means to be a Christian across the seasons of Vance’s life”.
In a post on X, Vance said he had been working on the project “for a long time” and described it as an account of rediscovering religion: “Communion is about my personal journey and how I found my way back to faith.”
According to the publisher, the book discusses Vance’s loss of faith and eventual return to Christianity. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 when he was 35, after being raised in a loosely evangelical family. His book, said the publisher, “reveals how his faith guides his work in public life, and how it informs his vision for the future”.
The news comes at a moment when Vance is increasingly viewed as an early frontrunner for the 2028 nomination to succeed Trump. Publishing a memoir ahead of a presidential run is a well-worn path in US politics. On the Democratic side, several potential 2028 contenders have recently released or announced books, including Kamala Harris, California governor Gavin Newsom, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro.
Vance’s emphasis on faith reflects a growing prominence of religion in his political identity. His Catholic conversion has informed his positions on issues such as abortion and family policy, and he has in the past justified the White House’s deportation policies with his interpretation of Catholicism, using ordo amoris – “order of love” – to defend prioritising obligations to fellow citizens over outsiders.
Those views have at times been criticised by senior figures in the Vatican. Before becoming Pope Leo XIV in May 2025, an X account apparently belonging to him shared criticism of the White House’s plans for mass deportations of migrants. The account also shared a link to an opinion piece titled ‘JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others’.
Without naming Vance directly, the late Pope Francis argued in a letter that “the true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ … that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception”.
Communion follows the success of Vance’s first book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, published in 2016. The memoir chronicled his upbringing in rural Ohio, and his journey from a troubled family background to Yale Law School. It became a bestseller, spending more than 200 weeks on the New York Times list and selling more than five million copies worldwide, and was later adapted into a film by Ron Howard starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.
