Faith and friction: US veep Vance’s Vatican trip spotlights Catholic rift over refugees. free speech

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - This photo taken and handout on April 19, 2025 by The Vatican Media shows The Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin welcoming US Vice-President JD Vance at the Vatican. — AFP/Vatican Media

VATICAN CITY, April 20 — US Vice President JD Vance met the Vatican’s second-highest official on yesterday, discussing the thorny issue of refugees just two months after Pope Francis incurred the wrath of the White House after lambasting the new US administration over its migration policies.

Catholic convert Vance and his delegation held “cordial talks” with the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, according to a Vatican statement.

The late morning meeting came just a day after Vance met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and discussed US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

Vance, 40, had been hoping to meet the 88-year-old head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who is recuperating after battling life-threatening pneumonia and spending nearly 40 days in hospital.

The Vatican made no mention of any such meeting with the pontiff and Vance’s entourage has not commented on the rest of his programme in Rome.

But Francis made a brief appearance at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the late afternoon, greeting visitors from his wheelchair.

“During the cordial talks” that praised bilateral relations, “the common commitment to protect the right to freedom of religion and conscience was reiterated,” the Vatican said in a statement.

That was a topic Vance brought up during a speech to the Munich Security Conference in February, when he slammed the “retreat” of free speech in Europe.

A statement from the White House said that Vance 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”.

‘Valuable service to most vulnerable’

However, there were also discussions on subjects where the two sides do not see eye to eye.

“There was 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,” the Vatican added.

In February, Francis angered the White House after writing a letter to US bishops in which he condemned Trump’s plan to deport migrants en masse, which he described as a “major crisis”.

The United States responded by telling Francis to “stick to” religion.

Last year, Francis also made a rare foray into the US election season to call harsh anti-migrant attitudes “madness” and criticise right-wing US Catholic figures for overly conservative stances.

But following Saturday’s meeting, the Vatican did acknowledge the US Catholic Church’s “valuable service to the most vulnerable people”.

Vance has a close relationship with the most conservative fringe of American churches, which have criticised the pope over his stances on migration, LGBTQ rights and certain questions of social justice.

The US vice president, his wife and three children attended a Good Friday liturgy at Saint Peter’s Basilica following his meeting with Meloni.

There has been no official confirmation of whether Vance, who converted to Catholicism in his mid-30s, will attend Easter mass on Sunday, where the pope is expected to make an appearance to the thousands of worshippers descending on the Vatican for the occasion.

In May 2017, when Trump was in his first term, he was received at the Vatican for a half-hour meeting. — AFP