Pope Francis met briefly in his hotel Sunday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance who is spending Easter in Rome alongside his family.
AP reports Vance´s motorcade entered the Vatican City through a side gate and parked near Francis´ hotel residence while Easter Mass was being celebrated nearby in St. Peter´s Square.
Francis, who has greatly cut back his workload to recover from illness, delegated the celebration of the Mass to another cardinal.
“Pope Francis had a brief private encounter … lasting a few minutes, in order to exchanges good wishes on Easter day,” said a Vatican statement by way of confirmation.
No further details were released about the meeting.
Vance and the Pope have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration´s successful efforts to deport illegal migrants en masse.
The vice president, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, met with the Vatican secretary of state and foreign minister on Saturday.
Prior to Trump’s inauguration, Pope Francis called his plan to deport illegals a “disgrace,” and also claimed it was “not the way to solve things.”
As Breitbart News reported, Francis later made a surprise appearance for Easter Sunday blessings at the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square.
It had been unknown if the pontiff, 88, would join the Holy Week gathering following his recent discharge from hospital after five weeks of treatment for an infection that led to double pneumonia.
