Pope Francis granted Vice President JD Vance a brief meeting on Sunday to celebrate Easter—a day after his No. 2 lectured Vance over the administration’s deportation efforts.
The two met at the Vatican as the Holy See celebrated Easter mass in St. Peter’s Square, which the Pope missed due to his ongoing recovery from a lengthy case of pneumonia, according to the Associated Press. The Vatican said the two met “to exchange Easter greetings.” Vance’s office offered no further details on what the two discussed.
Vance was at the Vatican complex for fewer than 20 minutes.
The meeting came one day after Francis delegated Cardinal Pietro Parolin to meet with Vance in his stead for “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,” according to the Vatican.
Vance’s office said he and Parolin discussed Trump’s “commitment to restoring world peace” and the plight of Christian communities.
Francis and Vance have battled for months over the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation plans—policies the Pope chastised in a February letter to American bishops: “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.”
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, said in February during the National Prayer Breakfast that he respected the Pope’s criticism but would continue to defend his views. He also praised how Francis “cares about the flock of Christians under his leadership and the spiritual direction of the faith.”
Francis has made the plight of migrants a key aspect of his papacy.
Still, Vance acknowledged in February that he had a lot to learn, calling himself a “baby Catholic.”
“I try to be humble as best I can when I talk about the faith and publicly, because of course, I’m not always going to get it right,” he said.
