Vice President JD Vance privately apologized to Cardinal Timothy Dolan after accusing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of supporting immigration out of financial self-interest, Dolan disclosed in an interview on EWTN released Thursday.

The exchange, which Dolan recounted on "EWTN News In Depth," traces back to Vance's first television interview after becoming vice president, when CBS's Margaret Brennan pressed him on an executive order signed by President Trump early in 2025 lifting restrictions on ICE raids at schools and houses of worship. Vance turned the question back on the bishops.

"I think that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?"

Dolan said the comment stung, and he told Vance as much. In the EWTN interview, the Cardinal described what happened next:

"He and I had a little tête-à-tête, you probably know, when he suggested that bishops in the United States were pro-immigrant because we were making money, which I said was not only untrue, it was scurrilous. And he apologized. All right? He says that was out of line, and that's not true."

That's where the story could end if you only read the headline. But the full interview reveals something more interesting: a cardinal who retired from the Archdiocese of New York in December, sits on Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, and is navigating every live wire in American Catholic life with a poker player's calm.

The money question, answered

Vance's original comment about the bishops' "bottom line" touched a nerve precisely because the numbers are public and the accusation doesn't survive them.

In 2024, the USCCB received more than $180 million in federal government contracts for programs assisting refugees and unaccompanied migrant children. They spent more than $179 million on those programs. In 2023, they spent upward of $130 million, almost $1 million more than they received in government grants.

This isn't a profit center. It's a breakeven operation at best, and a money-losing one in some years. The bishops have repeatedly said they spend more on their refugee work than they receive. In April 2025, the conference announced it would not seek to renew its agreements with the federal government to support refugees and unaccompanied minors. Whatever you think of the USCCB's immigration posture, the "they're in it for the cash" line doesn't hold.

Vance recognized that, and he said so privately. That matters. The willingness to correct course when you've overreached is not weakness. It's the kind of thing that builds the trust needed for the harder conversations ahead.

Dolan on Vance: warm, but clear-eyed

Dolan didn't use the apology to twist the knife. He called Vance "a very good guy" and said he enjoys him, adding that he agrees "with a bunch of stuff that he talks about." But the Cardinal also offered what might be the most diplomatically Catholic grading rubric in American public life:

"You're not going to get anybody batting a thousand."

"If a politician gets a C+, it ain't bad."

That framing, applied broadly, captures something important about how serious Catholic leaders evaluate political figures. You measure them against the full breadth of Catholic social teaching, not against a partisan checklist. And on that scale, nobody walks away with an A.

New York's new mayor and the socialism question

Dolan had equally revealing things to say about New York's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim and self-described democratic socialist. Dolan said Mamdani did not invite him to his inauguration and did not attend Archbishop Ronald Hicks' installation. Not many Catholics appeared on Mamdani's transition team either.

But it was their exchange on economics that was most telling. Dolan said he asked Mamdani "point blank" about his socialist label. Mamdani's response, as Dolan recounted it:

"I'm not that. I'm an economic socialist in that I want greater distribution of the wealth."

Dolan's reply: "Well, who doesn't?" The Cardinal called Mamdani "a gem" but made clear where the red lines fall. On the mayor's Democratic affiliation, Dolan was direct:

"I'm afraid he would be an avowed, a Democrat, meaning he's not pro-life, right? You worry, is he going to protect religious liberty? You worry if he's going to protect the dignity and the definition of the family."

He acknowledged some areas of potential common ground, including "openness to the immigrant, his desire for fair housing, his earnest desire to increase the income and the prosperity of most of the people in this town." But the core concerns remain. A mayor who won't protect life, religious liberty, or the family isn't earning that C+ just because he wants fair housing.

The Democratic Socialists of America, for their part, describe their vision as one that "pushes further than historic social democracy and leaves behind authoritarian visions of socialism in the dustbin of history." They want "a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society." It sounds lovely on paper. It always does. Mamdani can call himself an economic socialist rather than a real socialist all he wants. The policies that follow the label are what matter, and New Yorkers should watch closely.

ICE, churches, and the call that worked

Perhaps the most practically consequential part of the interview involved ICE enforcement near houses of worship. Dolan described growing alarmed alongside Rev. Franklin Graham when, in his telling, ICE agents began appearing outside churches.

"ICE would show up on Sunday Mass just in trucks and cars, and the people wouldn't come."

Dolan called it "a violation of religious freedom" and said people "have the right to worship on the Sabbath." He and Graham took their concern directly to the director of ICE in New York, who committed to stop those actions.

The result, according to Dolan:

"I have yet to hear of any other pastor since then tell me they're harassing or outside the churches."

This is how the system is supposed to work. A religious leader identifies a problem, contacts the relevant authority, and the authority responds. No press conference. No lawsuit. No three-week news cycle. Dolan raised the issue, got a resolution, and moved on. It's a quiet vindication of the Religious Liberty Commission model: people with genuine relationships can solve problems that adversarial posturing cannot.

Hochul, Notre Dame, and Catholic identity under pressure

Dolan also took aim at two issues that cut to the heart of Catholic institutional identity. He condemned New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Catholic, for supporting legislation legalizing medically assisted suicide for terminally ill people, saying the push "strengthens the opinion that pregnancy is a disease" and frames "a baby in the womb" as "someone to get rid of if it happens to be inconvenient or untimely."

He was equally blunt about the University of Notre Dame's appointment of Susan Ostermann, who has publicly supported abortion rights, to direct the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies.

Neither issue made major national headlines, but together they illustrate the slow erosion that concerns faithful Catholics more than any single political battle.

When a Catholic governor champions assisted suicide and a flagship Catholic university elevates an abortion-rights advocate, the question isn't whether the Church has political enemies. It's whether its own institutions still take Catholic identity seriously.

Catholic values, American values

Dolan wrapped the interview around this year's 250th anniversary of the United States, arguing that "Catholic values and American values are very similar." He pointed to the phrase "one nation under God" and what he described as a shared "drive to protect the common good."

He said he is "very happy with the administration that takes religious freedom very seriously." Coming from a man who just described telling the Vice President his comments were scurrilous, and who personally intervened to stop ICE activity near churches, that assessment carries weight. Dolan isn't offering flattery. He's offering a scorecard.

And on that scorecard, the administration is earning its grade the old-fashioned way: by listening when the Cardinal calls.