Pope Francis briefly met with Vice President JD Vance today before giving the traditional Easter blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, which marked his highest-profile appearance yet since being discharged from hospital.
The Pope had a brief private meeting with Vance, a devout Catholic, which “provided an opportunity to exchange Easter greetings,” according to the Vatican.
The pope gifted the vice president a tie, rosaries and three chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three children, video released by EWTN TV, a Catholic television network, showed.
“So good to see you … You’ve not been feeling great, but it’s good to see you in better health,” the vice president can be heard saying to the Pope during their meeting. “I pray for you every day.”
A statement from the vice president’s office later expressed gratitude “for the hospitality the Vatican has extended to his family.”
Recent tensions: Today’s meeting followed discussions between the vice president and senior Vatican officials yesterday, during which an “exchange of opinions” took place concerning migrants, refugees and prisoners, according to a Vatican statement.
The vice president’s office described the meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin as having centered on “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.”
Just before he was hospitalized in mid-February, Francis issued a rebuke of the Trump administration’s immigration policy and refuted the vice president’s use of a theological concept, the “ordo amoris” (“order of love” or “order of charity”), to defend the administration’s approach.
And after Catholic bishops criticized the Trump administration’s actions earlier this year, Vance suggested they were motivated by their “bottom line,” as the Catholic Church receives government money to help resettle immigrants.
Parolin told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica ahead of yesterday’s talks with Vance that the Trump administration is “very different from what we are used to and, especially in the West, from what we have relied on for many years.”
This post has been updated with additional details on the meeting.
