US Vice President JD Vance has defended remarks about his wife’s Hindu background after saying he hopes she will one day convert to Christianity.
Speaking at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi, Vance told students that while his wife Usha “did not grow up Christian”, the couple had agreed to raise their three children in the Catholic faith.
“Our two oldest kids go to Christian school. Our eight-year-old did his first communion about a year ago,” he said. “Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved by in church? Yes. But if she doesn’t, then God says everybody has free will, and so that doesn’t cause a problem for me.”
His comments prompted criticism from some interfaith advocates and Hindu groups. Suhag Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation told The New York Times that Vance’s words suggested that “this aspect of [Usha] is just not enough”.
Vance, 41, a Catholic convert who was baptised in 2019, responded that his views were consistent with both his personal faith and his duties as vice president. “Christians have beliefs,” he later wrote on social media. “One of which is that we want to share them with other people. That is a completely normal thing.”
At the end of the post, the Vice President said, “She is not a Christian and has no plans to convert, but like many people in an interfaith marriage – or any interfaith relationship – I hope she may one day see things as I do.”
While mixed marriages are permitted in the Catholic Church, they require careful pastoral guidance. The Catholic partner must promise to remain faithful to the Church and “do all in his or her power” to ensure the children are baptised and raised as Catholics. The non-Catholic partner must be informed of this promise but is not obliged to make one in return.
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