JD Vance was one of the last Pope visitors-after public dispute

One of his last visitors is someone that Pope Francis had clearly criticized in the past few months: US Vice President JD Vance. He hit the 88-year-old Pope just one day before his death. The head of the Catholic Church died of a stroke on Easter Monday after a long illness.

Francis received Vance on Easter Sunday at 11.30 a.m. in the Santa Marta guest house. There he lived from the hospital after his release. According to official messages, the encounter only took a few minutes. The 88-year-old gave the Vice President Rosen wreaths, a Vatican tie and three large chocolate egg eggs, one for every child.

The press office of the Vatican described the conversation as “warm” that Easter greetings were exchanged and the joint commitment to the protection of religious freedom and freedom of conscience was confirmed. However, both would also have spoken about the political situation, with the focus, according to “Vatican News” “migrants, refugees and prisoners. Francis had significantly criticized Donald Trump’s government several times for her migration policy.

Vance had arrived in Rome on Friday. He brought his wife Usha and the three children with him. In addition to political dates, the family used the days in Rome to look at the city. The US Vice President is a zealous Catholic. He converted to Catholic faith in adulthood and was baptized in 2019.

With all the zeal, the 39-year-old US vice and the late Pope were not politically in line. In February, for example, Francis had once again criticized the migration policy of US President Trump. He described the mass deportations as a “severe crisis” that violated “the dignity of many men and women”. The government has the right to protect its country from people who committed violent crimes or serious crimes. However, he added: “What is structured on violence and not on the truth about the same dignity of every person begins bad and will end badly.” Vance admitted the Pope’s criticism, but said that he would continue to defend his views.

In his view, Trump currently has “illegal” migrants deported. Videos document the partly brutal approach of the authorities. There were already mistakes and hundreds were deported without procedures. The decisions are therefore repeatedly contested in court.

Even before Trump’s first term in office, the Pontifex criticized its plans to build a wall on the border with Mexico. “Anyone who only thinks of building walls wherever that may be and not building bridges is not a Christian,” said Francis in February 2016 on a trip to Mexico. That is not the gospel. Trump was offended and said: “No leader, especially no religious guide, has the right to question the religion or faith of another person.”

After the Pope’s death, Trump announced despite the public disputes to travel to Francis’ funeral to Rome. It will be Trump’s first trip abroad in his second term. He and his wife Melania “look forward to being there,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

JD vance expressed his sympathy worldwide to the 1.4 billion Catholics: “I just experienced Pope Francis’ death. My deep sympathy applies to the millions of Christians worldwide. I was happy to see him again yesterday, even though he was obviously very sick” ,. “May God give him peace.”

Sources: “”, “Guardian”,