Of all the liberals with a strange, new respect for papal wisdom, HBO’s John Oliver might be the most brazen. On Sunday, the Last Week Tonight host, who spends a great amount of time lamenting pro-lifers and religious people who operate under the assumption that the First Amendment applies to their views of homosexuality, became the latest to pile on Vice President JD Vance for his comments about Pope Leo and the Iran War when he told Vance to stay in his lane, which he argued was teaching sex ed with couches.
Oliver introduced a clip of Vance by playing up the idea that Vance was doing something risky, “Now, when pressed on the pope's remarks, Vance took a bold swing.”
While throwing in a JD Vance-couch sex joke, John Oliver recently became the latest person to have a strange, new respect for papal wisdom, "Yeah, that's JD Vance douchesplaining theology to the pope! Which is objectively crazy. It'd be like me explaining to JD Vance where the… pic.twitter.com/fIx7yKwCko
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 21, 2026
In the clip, Vance declared, “When the pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword, there is a thousand-year—more than a thousand-year tradition of just war theory. Okay? Now, we can of course have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just, but I think that it's important in the same way that it's important for the vice president of United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy. I think it's very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”
It’s not a completely unreasonable thing to say. The United States did not attack Iran for the purposes of annexing its territory or some racist urge to wipe out Persian people and their culture. You could say Iran has an urge to wipe out Israel, just like their Russian allies certainly desire to do that to Ukraine. Nevertheless, an aghast Oliver reacted, “Yeah, that's JD Vance douchesplaining theology to the pope! Which is objectively crazy. It'd be like me explaining to JD Vance where the clit is on a Togo sectional. Why would I even try to do that? He's spent his life devoted to this very subject. I'm out of my lane there!”
Oliver continued with a reference to Vance’s meeting with Pope Francis, “Also, ‘Be careful?’ The pope's got a lifetime gig. He doesn't need to be cautious about what he says. He could start tweeting ‘Where's the album, @Rihanna’ every day for the rest of his life, and that still wouldn't change the fact he's considered the vicar of Christ. Literally the only thing he should probably ‘Be careful about’ is not meeting with JD Vance because, historically, that's been fatal for popes.”
Popes simply don’t endorse military action anymore, so unless Oliver wants to announce he is a total pacifist, he should refrain from using Leo as a shield for his own agenda, especially considering that when the news cycle shifts to abortion, or same-sex marriage, or transgender-related things, Oliver’s interest in Leo’s thoughts will either disappear or shift to opposition.
Here is a transcript for the April 20 show:
HBO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
4/19/2026
11:14 PM ET
JOHN OLIVER: Now, when pressed on the pope's remarks, Vance took a bold swing.
JD VANCE: When the pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword, there is a thousand-year—more than a thousand-year tradition of just war theory. Okay? Now, we can of course have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just, but I think that it's important in the same way that it's important for the vice president of United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy. I think it's very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.
OLIVER: Yeah, that's JD Vance douchesplaining theology to the pope! Which is objectively crazy. It'd be like me explaining to JD Vance where the clit is on a Togo sectional. Why would I even try to do that? He's spent his life devoted to this very subject. I'm out of my lane there!
Also, "Be careful?" The pope's got a lifetime gig. He doesn't need to be cautious about what he says. He could start tweeting "Where's the album, @Rihanna” every day for the rest of his life, and that still wouldn't change the fact he's considered the vicar of Christ. Literally the only thing he should probably "Be careful about" is not meeting with JD Vance because, historically, that's been fatal for popes.
