Washington – The presence of Vice President JD Vance as a speaker at the 2026 March for Life, scheduled for 23 January in Washington, D.C., raises questions that go far beyond the events calendar or the customary ritual of pro-life mobilisation in the United States. Vance, the second Catholic vice president in the country’s history, will take the stage alongside Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Congressman Chris Smith, at what will be the 53rd edition of the march.
The organisers have recalled that this will be Vance’s second appearance in his capacity as vice president, following his address in 2025, when he delivered his first public speech in the new institutional role. On that occasion, Vance linked his own experience of fatherhood to the conviction that “an unborn life is worthy of protection”, insisting that the March for Life does not represent a single event, but rather the daily work of the pro-life movement.
However, the political profile and public language of the vice president tell a more complex and, in many respects, deeply contradictory story when measured against an authentically Catholic vision of the defence of life. On several occasions, JD Vance has expressed himself in tones and ways that can hardly be traced back to the social doctrine of the Church. In recent weeks, commenting on the killing of a woman during an operation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) police forces, Vance stated that the agents “did the right thing”, legitimising a use of force that raises serious questions from a human rights perspective. Nor is that all: the vice president has repeatedly argued that ICE action against irregular migrants is, overall, positive, without distinguishing between security, legality, and respect for the dignity of the person.
These positions collide with what has been stated with clarity by Leo XIV. On 30 September 2025, responding to a question from an American journalist as he was leaving Castel Gandolfo—in a context marked by attempts to drag the Pope into a media pillory orchestrated by traditionalist circles against Cardinal Cupich—Leo XIV spoke unequivocal words: “If someone says they are against abortion but are in favour of the death penalty, they are not truly pro-life; if someone says they are against abortion but are in favour of inhumane treatment of migrants, they are not truly pro-life.” A stance that unmasks the selective and instrumental use of the concept of “life”, reduced to an ideological slogan. In just a few months of his pontificate, the Pope has repeatedly denounced this drift. In the book-length interview published in recent months by journalist Elise Ann Allen, Leo XIV recalled how it is not uncommon for traditionalist circles to bend liturgy and faith to political ends, turning religious symbols into tools of propaganda. It is within this framework that JD Vance’s participation in the March for Life must be read: not as the expression of a coherent Catholic witness, but as a piece of a political strategy that uses ethically sensitive issues to consolidate consensus.
The vice president’s presence at the march makes an uncomfortable truth evident: events such as the March for Life in the United States and, in Italy, initiatives such as Pro Vita e Famiglia do not present themselves as expressions of the Catholic Church, but as platforms of an ideological right that uses the lexicon of “life” selectively, deciding which lives deserve protection and which can be rendered invisible or even sacrificed.
The Italian version of right-wing extremists
On the Italian front of the same faction, in recent hours Mario Adinolfi - who likes to introduce himself with the self-description “journalist and writer, Member of Parliament in the 16th legislature, poker player, husband and father” - published a photo from the Capitoline Hill, accompanying it with words that capture the style of these self-styled Catholics: “From Capitoline Hill Square we raise placards against oppression and for the physical or political elimination of Ayatollah Khamenei and his murderous Islamist regime.” This encapsulates a constant activation on social media and in the few television showcases that still, unfortunately, offer space to an area of the most radical right, where indignation becomes a slogan and confrontation replaces argument. Adinolfi is also among the figures who have militated around “Il Popolo della Famiglia”, a milieu that publicly claims the defence of familyand Catholic morality but which, in the behaviour and personal histories of some of its protagonists, often ends up exposing fractures and inconsistencies that are hard to ignore. Let us not forget that Adinolfi has fathered several children with different wives, in open disregard of the “Catholic doctrine” he so often invokes.
And it is precisely here that one understands why, for months now, certain figures have begun to target Leo XIV with subtle, allusive, at times even venomous criticism: not because the Pope is “too” or “not” Catholic enough, but because he forces a reckoning with the core of the issue, namely the impossibility of using God and the Church as a stamp of legitimacy for one’s political battles. When faith becomes an identity weapon, those who recall evangelical coherence lay bare hypocrisy. And for many, this is intolerable.
p.I.L.
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