Pope quoted by VP Vance at Munich Security Conference might see Ukraine deal as ‘not peace’

US Vice President JD Vance showed no reluctance to use his Catholic faith as a talking point on Thursday. In fact, he concluded his address to the Munich Security Conference by quoting John Paul II.

Since he took office on Jan. 20, Vance – who converted to Catholicism in 2019 – has spoken of his religion in arguing for the morality of President Donald Trump’s often controversial policies.

Pope Francis this week rebuked the Trump administration’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, including a direct challenge to Vance’s description of the teaching of ordo amoris [Latin for “hierarchy of love”].

The Munich Security Conference first met in 1963. Participants are diplomats, military leaders, and security experts from the member countries of NATO and the European Union, although other countries also send representatives.

This year, Vance shocked participants about complaining about the state of religious liberty on the continent.

“Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ourselves, because I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team,” the U.S. Vice President said.

“[W]hile the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine – and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense – the threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” Vance said.

“What I worry about is the threat from within,” Vance continued. “The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values: Values shared with the United States of America.”

“A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith Conner, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own,” he said.

At the end of his speech, Vance said to “believe in democracy is to understand that each of our citizens has wisdom and has a voice.”

“And if we refuse to listen to that voice, even our most successful fights will secure very little. As Pope John Paul II, in my view, one of the most extraordinary champions of democracy on this continent or any other, once said, ‘do not be afraid’. We shouldn’t be afraid of our people even when they express views that disagree with their leadership,” Vance ended.

The vice president has not been shy about his faith, and opponents have complained that the “new” Catholic is often misrepresenting the teachings of his Church.

They might have a strong argument to make in his mention of John St. Paul II in a meeting with a meeting consisting of members of the European Union and NATO.

John Paul II was a strong supporter of both institutions, and was famous for his cooperation with President Ronald Reagan in defeating the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War.

Speaking to members of the NATO Defense College in 1981, John Paul II said the foremost among the threats to peace “was not only the stockpiling of atomic weapons, but a manipulation of the very notion of peace itself for the purposes of self-interested parties.”

In his meeting with the Defense College the next year, he quoted Paul VI: “Peace with weakness (not just physical but also moral), with the renunciation of genuine right and equitable justice, with the evasion of risk and sacrifice, with cowardice and supine submission to others’ arrogance, and hence with acquiescence to enslavement … This is not real Peace. Repression is not peace. Cowardice is not peace. A settlement which is purely external and imposed by fear is not peace.”

Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, with a full-scale attack in 2022. The Russian attacks have been brutal, and have included indiscriminate bombings of civilian areas in cities, and thousands of civilian deaths.

As Vance was delivering his speech, the Trump administration said it was speaking to Russia and Ukraine about ending their war.

Trump spoke on the phone with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the phone this week, and has said he wants to “make a deal” to end the war, even though Russia currently controls nearly 20 percent of Ukraine’s land.

Meeting with Vance after his speech, Zelenskyy said he needs “real security guarantees” to get to a peace agreement.

However, most observers believe such a peace at this time would be for Ukraine of the kind Pope St. John Paul II disparaged: A peace with weakness – both physical and moral – “with cowardice and supine submission to others’ arrogance, and hence with acquiescence to enslavement.”

The U.S. Vice President says Europe ought to heed John Paul II, but that sainted pope may not have considered any negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine at this point to be a “real peace.”

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome