Vice President JD Vance shared how the sacrament of confession helped him build spiritual discipline, crediting it with transforming his approach to faith and weekly Mass attendance. Speaking at the 2025 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Vance—a Catholic convert since 2019—described confession as a “genius” of Catholicism that fostered accountability in his religious practice.
Vance admitted that early in his conversion, he often skipped Sunday Mass due to travel, work, or family obligations. Missing Mass meant he’d later need to confess this failure to a priest, a prospect he found “daunting.” This accountability, he said, gradually instilled a “much better discipline” in prioritizing weekly worship. Over time, he improved from attending Mass “every other week” to a 95% weekly attendance rate, crediting the sacrament’s structure for this growth[2][5].
The vice president framed confession as part of Catholicism’s “process” of spiritual development, where God’s grace works incrementally through sacraments rather than instantaneously. He contrasted his past “angry atheist” phase with his current embrace of sacramental rhythms, noting: “God transforms us every single day” through consistent participation in confession and Eucharist. This outlook reflects his broader view that Christianity provides “answers” to modern societal challenges by shaping personal virtue[2][5][7].
Vance’s testimony highlights how sacramental accountability helped him transition from sporadic church attendance to disciplined practice, while framing Catholicism as a stabilizing force for both individuals and nations.
