O n the evening of May 8, as a warm Roman sun began to lower itself over St. Peter’s Dome, the 133 voting cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church elected the Chicago-born Robert Prevost as Pope. Leo XIV is the first Pope from the Order of St. Augustine. Three months ago, JD Vance achieved what most theologians fail to do in a lifetime: to make St. Augustine headline news. Speaking to U.S. media about the possible Christian basis for the Trumpian “America First” proposition, Vance claimed that