Pope Francis did not attend the Vatican’s official meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Saturday, instead having his No. 2 deliver a lecture on compassion, according to a Vatican statement.
Pope Francis was absent from Vance’s conversation with Cardinal Pietro Parolin. However, the statement said there was “an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners.”
It called for “serene collaboration” between the White House and the Catholic Church in the United States—a seeming hint to the tensions that have brewed between the two since President Donald Trump took office.
A statement from Vance’s office about the meeting, however, did not include migration among the topics of conversation.
It said the two discussed “the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world” as well as Trump’s “commitment to restoring world peace,” Bloomberg reported.
Inside Vatican sources told Sky News that Vance did briefly meet with the pope at his residence, but no details of their conversation have been made public.
Pope Francis has repeatedly rebuked the president’s mass deportation effort, calling it a “disgrace” and a “grave sin.”
The pontiff has also specifically confronted Vance, who is the highest-ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, having converted in 2019.
Without mentioning the vice president by name, the pope corrected a Catholic concept Vance had invoked to defend the administration’s deportations, ordo amoris (order of love). In a February letter, Francis pointedly explained, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”
Vance acknowledged the Pope’s criticism, calling himself a “baby Catholic” and admitting that there are “things about the faith that I don’t know.”
In January, Vance found himself in a tussle with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after he suggested they were helping “resettle illegal immigrants” to secure funding.
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan fired back that Vance’s remarks were “scurrilous,” “nasty,” and “not true.”
JD Vance and his family attended the Vatican’s Good Friday mass. Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis via Getty Images
The pope, 88, is recovering from a serious bout of pneumonia that kept him in the hospital for more than a month. However, he has resumed his official duties. He was well enough to meet with King Charles and Queen Camilla when they visited the Vatican last week.
Vance is spending the Easter weekend in Rome after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He and his wife, Usha Vance, were in attendance at the Vatican’s Good Friday service, Politico reported.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to make clear that the Pope did not snub J.D. Vance.
