J.D. Vance Was Brushed Off by Pope Francis Before Brief Easter Meeting. Why? – ryan

• Pope Francis died at age 88 on Easter Monday, April 21, one day after briefly greeting Vice President J.D. Vance.
• Vance was initially brushed off by His Holiness on Saturday, instead meeting with senior Vatican leaders who were sent in the pope’s place.
• Over the years, the pope issued multiple stern messages to the Trump administration about their immigration policies.

Pope Francis died at age 88 on Easter Monday, April 21 — but not before issuing another apparent condemnation of Vice President J.D. Vance and the Trump administration.

Vance traveled to Vatican City over the weekend, though he was initially rebuffed by the Catholic leader, meeting instead with the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, on Saturday.

The office of the VP — who converted to Catholicism in 2019 — said he and Parolin “discussed their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world, and President Trump’s commitment to restoring world peace.”

The Vatican’s release, however, said the pair had “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.”

On Easter Sunday, Vance was granted a brief audience with Pope Francis before leaving the region — the VP’s motorcade was parked at the Vatican for less than 20 minutes, according to a pool report. Vance was given chocolate Easter eggs for his three children, who were not in attendance.

“I know you have not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health,” Vance told the pope. “Thank you for seeing me.”

The vice president’s office later said he “expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for inviting him to meet on Easter Sunday and for the hospitality the Vatican has extended to his family.”

Vance’s statement did not mention any tension with the Vatican over the weekend, nor Pope Francis’ condemnation of the current U.S. immigration practices.

In Pope Francis’ official Easter address — which was written by the supreme pontiff but delivered by an aide due to his poor health — he doubled down on the importance of compassion for society’s discounted members.

In the address, which was delivered shortly after Vance left the Vatican, the pope wrote, “How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!”

Pope Francis, who was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936, has spoken out against Trump’s immigration policies multiple times since the real estate mogul entered U.S. politics. During Trump’s first term, the pope said his plan to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico was “not Christian.”

He was rebuked by the president, who called him a “very political person.” However, Trump was happy to accept the pope’s 2017 invitation to visit Vatican City, calling it the “honor of a lifetime.”

In a February 2025 letter to U.S. bishopsthe pope wrote that “the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families.”

“The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all — as I have affirmed on numerous occasions — welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable,” he continued. “I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters.”

He also specifically rebuked Vance’s use of the Latin term “ordo amoris” — or, “order of love” — to justify what the VP called a “hierarchy of obligations.” In a post on X on Jan. 30, 2025, the vice president stated that he had more “moral duties” to his children than “a stranger who lives thousands of miles away.”

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Pope Francis wrote, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”

“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ ” His Holiness said, “that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”