JD Vance has ‘exchange of opinions’ on issues like deportations during meeting with top Vatican official

Vice President JD Vance met with the Vatican’s No. 2 official Saturday in Rome, and the pair had an “exchange of opinions” on international issues, including migrants and deportations under the Trump administration.

“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,” a statement from the Vatican said after the meeting. 

“Finally, hope was expressed for serene collaboration between the state and the Catholic Church in the United States, whose valuable service to the most vulnerable people was acknowledged.”

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, its foreign minister.

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He 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,” Vance’s office said. 

Pope Francis has cut back his official meetings since a bout with double pneumonia. 

The Vatican has clashed with the Trump administration over its deportation push, but the Holy See affirmed its good relations with the United States after the meeting. 

The vice president’s Vatican meeting Saturday is part of an official trip to Italy and India. 

Vance, with second lady Usha Vance and their two young children, arrived in Rome Friday, and he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. 

“I’m grateful every day for this job, but particularly today, where my official duties have brought me to Rome on Good Friday,” the 40-year-old wrote on his X account Friday. “I had a great meeting with Prime Minister Meloni and her team, and will head to church soon with my family in this beautiful city. I wish all Christians all over the world, but particularly those back home in the US, a blessed Good Friday. He died so that we might live.”

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The meeting came a day after President Trump met with Meloni at the White House to discuss a trade deal. 

U.S. Bishop Robert Barron, who, along with being bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, is also an online evangelist and founder of Word on Fire Ministries, told Fox News Digital he “was pleased to hear that Vice President JD Vance met with Cardinal Parolin and Archbishop Gallagher at the Vatican.

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“American Catholics will appreciate that our Catholic Vice President was received with such a warm welcome. I’m sure that among the many topics they addressed were immigration and the war in the Ukraine, both of which are top of mind for both the Holy See and the United States. 

“The Vice President, as a Catholic, shares a common faith with his Vatican interlocutors, but also a common language in Catholic social teaching, which brings to bear into political and cultural realities moral and theological principles, insights and recommendations.” 

The vice president is expected to leave Italy for India, the second leg of his trip, on Monday, where he’ll meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.