Michael Brooks
JD Vance, the 50th vice president of the United States, has been open about his Catholic faith. He was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church in August 2019, despite not being baptized as a child. Vance has three children with his wife, Usha, who is Hindu. Usha has discussed raising her children in an interfaith household, giving them the choice to be baptized Catholic. She has emphasized that they have access to both Catholic and Hindu traditions, and the family attends church together. While the Vances have faced criticism for their interfaith marriage and parenting, they have navigated their religious differences through open communication.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of children | 3 |
| Children's names | Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel |
| Children's religion | The children have been given the choice to decide whether they want to be baptized Catholic. The oldest child has chosen to be baptized. |
| Wife's religion | Hindu |
| Wife's name | Usha Vance |
| Baptism | Baptized Catholic in August 2019 |
| Confirmation saint | Augustine of Hippo |
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What You'll Learn
JD Vance was not baptised as a child
J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States, was not baptized as a child. In fact, he was raised in a family that did not regularly attend church. Although his grandmother had a "deeply personal (albeit quirky) faith", young Vance did not like the Catholic Church. In his memoir, he writes about his misconceptions about Catholicism, including the belief that "Catholics worshipped Mary" and "rejected the legitimacy of Scripture".
Vance's father was a serious Pentecostal and would take him to a large Pentecostal church in southeastern Ohio with his new wife and their children. Vance embraced these beliefs, including the rejection of evolution and the belief that the world would end in 2007.
In his 20s, Vance became a libertarian atheist, a common stance among young, self-taught men of the 2000s who sought out totalizing positions to win online arguments. However, in 2016, Vance began to reconsider his faith. While on a train from New York to Washington, D.C., he listened to a recording of an Orthodox choir singing a Psalm during Pope Francis' visit to Georgia. This sparked a journey of religious exploration for Vance, who eventually converted to Catholicism. He was baptized in August 2019 by a Dominican priest, Father Henry Stephan, at St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, where he currently resides.
Despite his conversion, Vance's wife, Usha, remains Hindu, and the couple raises their three children, Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel, in an interfaith household. Usha has stated that they send their children to Catholic school and have given them the choice to be baptized Catholic. Their oldest child has chosen to do so.
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Vance was baptised Catholic in 2019
J.D. Vance, the 50th vice president of the United States, was baptised Catholic in August 2019. He was raised in a "conservative, evangelical" branch of Protestantism and was an atheist when he entered college. However, by September 2016, he was "not an active participant" in any particular Christian denomination, but was "thinking very seriously about converting to Catholicism".
Vance has written extensively about his life in faith, both in his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy", and in a long essay that describes his journey to Catholicism. In the essay, he mentions listening to a recording of an Orthodox choir singing a Psalm during Pope Francis' visit to Georgia in 2016. Upon arriving in Washington, he met with a Dominican friar and subsequently decided to convert.
Vance was baptised by a Dominican priest, Father Henry Stephan, at St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lives. He chose Augustine of Hippo as his confirmation saint, stating that Augustine "gave me a way to understand Christian faith in a strongly intellectual way".
Vance's conversion to Catholicism has been a subject of interest, especially following the recent death of Pope Francis, with whom he met shortly before his passing. Their meeting came after Pope Francis criticised Vance for supporting the deportation of migrants.
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His wife, Usha, is Hindu
Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, is the first Indian American and first Hindu Second Lady of the United States. Usha was born in 1986 in a suburb of San Diego County, California, to Telugu Indian immigrant parents. Her mother is a biologist and provost at the University of California, San Diego, while her father is an engineer and lecturer at San Diego State University. Usha was raised Hindu and continues to practice the faith.
Usha and JD Vance have three children together: a 7-year-old son, Ewan, a 4-year-old son, Vivek, and a 2-year-old daughter, Mirabel. The couple raises their children in an interfaith household. In an interview, Usha shared that their children attend Catholic school and have the choice to be baptized Catholic. She also noted that they make going to church a "family experience" and that their children have access to Hindu traditions through books, cultural trips to India, and other resources.
Usha and JD Vance's wedding in 2014 included an interfaith ceremony, with a reading from the Bible and a blessing by a Hindu pandit. At the time of their marriage, JD Vance was not yet Catholic, and he converted to Catholicism after their wedding. Usha has stated that his conversion led to many conversations about how they would raise their children, given her intention to remain Hindu and not convert.
As the Second Lady, Usha Vance has played a significant role in her husband's political career and has accompanied him on various official visits and diplomatic trips. She has also been the target of racist comments due to her Indian heritage, which her husband has publicly defended her against.
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They have three children: Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel
JD Vance, Donald Trump's vice president, and his wife Usha have three children: Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel. The couple has largely kept their children out of the limelight and off social media pages. However, in October 2024, Vance shared a post about a fishing trip he took with Vivek, who was four years old at the time.
Vance and Usha welcomed their first child, son Ewan, in June 2017. Three weeks before Ewan's birth, the couple found out the gender of the baby early on in the pregnancy. In February 2024, Vance referred to his eldest child as his "6-year-old baby boy" on the Senate floor, before playfully correcting himself, acknowledging that he was "not so much of a baby anymore."
Their second child, another son named Vivek, was born three years after Ewan, in February 2020. In February 2024, Vance wished Vivek a happy 4th birthday on the Senate floor and read a passage from the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" to him.
In December 2021, Usha and JD Vance welcomed their third child, a daughter named Mirabel Rose Vance. They shared the news on Instagram, expressing their gratitude for the early Christmas present. Mirabel made headlines at Trump's Presidential inauguration for her adorable outfit and for sucking her thumb while her father was sworn into office.
Usha Vance has spoken about raising her children in an interfaith household, as she is Hindu and her husband is Catholic. The children attend Catholic school and have been given the choice to decide whether they want to be baptized Catholic. According to Usha, their oldest child has chosen to go through the baptism process, and the family makes going to church a shared experience.
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The children attend Catholic school and can choose to be baptised
J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States, was raised in a family that did not regularly attend church. Although his father was a serious Pentecostal, Vance himself became a libertarian atheist in his 20s. Later, he converted to Catholicism and was baptised in August 2019.
Vance has three children with his wife, Usha: Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel. Usha is Hindu, and the couple are raising their children in an interfaith household. In an interview, Usha shared that their children attend Catholic school and can choose whether they want to be baptised and go through the religious process. She said:
> "We send our kids to Catholic school, and we have given them each the choice, right? They can choose whether they want to be baptized Catholic and then go through the whole step-by-step process with their classes in school... The kids know that I'm not Catholic, and they have plenty of access to the Hindu tradition from books that we give them, to things that we show them, to the recent trip to India, and some of the religious elements of that visit."
Usha also mentioned that their oldest child has chosen to be baptised.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, JD Vance was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church in August 2019.
JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, are raising their three children in an interfaith household. Their children are given the choice of whether they want to be baptized Catholic. Their oldest child has chosen to be baptized.
An interfaith household is where people of different religions coexist. In this case, Usha Vance is Hindu, and JD Vance is Catholic.
