CALLISTA GINGRICH: J.D. Vance’s Inspiring Journey To Catholicism

Newt and I recently attended the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. On July 17, we listened as Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination and said: “My friends, tonight is a night of hope. A celebration of what America once was, and with God’s grace, what it will soon be again.”

During his acceptance speech, as thousands watched in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum and millions more from their homes, Vance told his story, articulated the values he lives by, and affirmed that he will fight for Americans who have been overlooked, forgotten and ignored.

Vance spoke of being raised by his Christian grandmother, “Mamaw,” in Middletown, Ohio, “a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts.”

Though Vance was surrounded by Christian faith and values in his youth (and greatly admired his Catholic uncle), it was not until his teenage years that he joined an organized church.

As an adolescent, Vance attended a large Pentecostal church with his biological father after the two reconnected. “I’m not sure if I liked the structure or if I just wanted to share in something that was important to him — both, I suppose — but I became a devoted convert,” Vance wrote in his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

However, throughout his young adulthood, Vance’s faith lapsed, as he described in a nearly 7,000-word essay for The Lamp titled “