Vice President JD Vance has published a new memoir about rediscovering religion.
Vance’s second book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” released Tuesday, June 16, explores his Catholic faith and his relationship with his wife, Usha Vance. In “Communion,” Vance reflects on his conversion to Catholicism after a Protestant upbringing and a stint as an atheist, per USA TODAY.
Here’s what to know about JD and Usha Vance’s religious backgrounds.
What religion is JD Vance?
Vance was baptized Catholic and received his first communion in 2019 at St. Gertrude Priory, which is attached to a Dominican parish in Cincinnati. He chose St. Augustine as his patron saint.
“I became persuaded over time that Catholicism was true. I was raised Christian, but never had a super-strong attachment to any denomination, and was never baptized. When I became more interested in faith, I started out with a clean slate, and looked at the church that appealed most to me intellectually,” Vance said in an interview with The American Conservative.
In his recent memoir, Vance says he strayed from his Christianity after the 2005 death of his grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance, whom he lovingly refers to as Mamaw throughout the book.
“With her gone, no one really cared about my faith, and soon I stopped caring, too,” Vance writes.
By the time he returned from Iraq, where he served as a U.S. Marine Corps media relations officer, Vance writes that he was no longer a Christian. However, he adds that his wife, Usha Vance, whom he met at Yale Law School, turned his life around.
He writes that she encouraged him to reconnect with his faith and describes her as the family’s “anchor,” managing the chaos of Sunday mornings as they rush their children to Mass.
What religion is JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance?
JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance is the first Indian American and Hindu second lady in the White House.
The couple, who now have three children, with a fourth on the way, got married in Kentucky in 2014 and were blessed by a Hindu pundit in a separate ceremony, per The New York Times.
Even though she is Hindu and not interested in becoming Catholic, Vance writes that his wife helped him reconnect with his faith.
“That Usha thought church was ‘good for me’ gave me both permission and inspiration,” Vance writes. “I wanted more than anything to be worthy of this woman. If church helped me, I’d sit my butt in the pew every Sunday.”
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What religions are JD and Usha Vance? New memoir explores faith
Reporting by Haadiza Ogwude and Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Haadiza Ogwude and Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
