J.D. Vance, perhaps the world’s most prominent Catholic layman, has found his political ideology at odds with the papacy for the second time in as many pontificates.
Vance’s brand of Catholicism favours tradition and he is part of a growing cohort of young Catholics, sometimes affectionately referred to as ‘rad trads’. It is a Tridentine Mass, highly observant Catholicism that reacts against the liberalising reforms of the 1960s, which it sees as corrosive to the truth that came before. These Catholics are found across the world, but particularly in the Anglosphere – and especially in the United States. They attend Mass with reverence, observe Church teaching on sexual morality, and view Catholic doctrine as a much-needed antidote to the ills of modern society. They have chosen to practice the faith, rather than inherit it as a birthright – something especially true for J.D. Vance. His St Augustine-inspired conversion from non-denominational Protestantism to Catholicism was, he explained, a rejection of 21st-century decadence.
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