On Easter Sunday, the Vatican held a meeting with Vice President JD Vance, but Pope Francis was reportedly not in attendance. Instead, the VP met with the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and its foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The Vatican said they met for a few minutes at the Domus Santa Marta “to exchange Easter greetings.” Vance and the pope have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration’s plans to deport migrants en masse.

Vance and Francis have publicly disagreed in recent months on immigration policies and other aspects of church teaching, so an Easter Sunday meeting with the pope, in what proved to be the final hours of his life,