Pope Francis met Vice President JD Vance on Sunday, a day after he had his No. 2 lecture the VP on compassion.
The Vatican said the two men briefly met to “exchange Easter greetings,” and sources said Vance was only at the Vatican complex for about 20 minutes.
The pope did not attend Saturday’s meeting, instead sending Cardinal Pietro Parolin to participate in “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” with Vance.
The meeting called for “serene collaboration” between the White House and the Catholic Church in the United States amid ongoing tensions over migration and mass deportations.
Pope Francis has previously called Trump’s deportation policy a “disgrace” and a “grave sin.”
The pontiff had also corrected Vance’s use of the Catholic concept of ordo amoris to explain the deportations, explaining that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”
