Vice President JD Vance flew to Rome hoping to meet with Pope Francis. Instead, the Pope skipped the meeting entirely—and sent his top cardinal to deliver a pointed message about compassion and care for the vulnerable.
Vance was greeted not by the pontiff, but by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State. In a statement, the Vatican said the meeting covered global conflicts, political unrest, and “difficult humanitarian situations,” with a clear focus on “migrants, refugees, and prisoners.”
The conversation sounded more like a lecture than a diplomatic exchange. And the Pope’s absence was hard to ignore.
While Sky News reported that Vance had a brief, private encounter with the Pope at his residence, there were no details, no photos, and no official mention. The real meeting—the one on the schedule—never happened.
The message? Clear enough: the Pope isn’t backing down from his public criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
Francis has repeatedly condemned mass deportations, calling them a “disgrace” and a “grave sin.” Vance, a Catholic convert and the highest-ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, has been one of the policy’s loudest defenders.
In February, without naming names, the Pope directly refuted a Catholic concept Vance had twisted to justify deportations. Vance had cited ordo amoris—the “order of love”—to argue that Americans should come first.
Francis responded: “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”
Vance, acknowledging the rebuke, called himself a “baby Catholic” and admitted, “there are things about the faith that I don’t know.”
The friction doesn’t stop in Rome. In January, Vance accused the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops of using migrant resettlement as a cash grab. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan didn’t hold back, calling Vance’s claims “scurrilous,” “nasty,” and “not true.”
The Pope, now 88 and recently hospitalized for pneumonia, has resumed public duties. He met King Charles and Queen Camilla just days before Vance’s visit, showing that his schedule isn’t exactly empty.
Vance, in Rome for Easter weekend after meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, attended the Vatican’s Good Friday service with his wife, Usha, Politico reported. But the highlight of his trip—the expected meeting with the Pope—was quietly erased.
No photo op. No public blessing. Just a cold shoulder—and a firm reminder from the Vatican about who the Catholic Church stands with.
