Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was just in Washington DC last week to do the White House photo-op with Donald Trump. European media calls Meloni the “Trump whisperer,” I guess because she’s able to talk to his ugly mug without hurling. I mention this because… even though Meloni was just in DC, JD Vance decided to fly to Italy right after her visit. He met with PM Meloni in Rome, then he went to Vatican City on Friday. He attended the Good Friday mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, alongside Usha (his Hindu wife) and their three children. Usha looked pretty unamused to be dragged to Good Friday mass with three tired children, btw.

So that was the purpose of the whole trip – Vance wasn’t shoring up any particular European alliances (please, he and Trump are trying to destroy all of America’s alliances). Vance went to Italy specifically for his Catholic-convert photo-ops. He got the Good Friday mass photo-op, and next up was a photo with Pope Francis. At first, Pope Francis refused to see him and sent a deputy to give Vance a lecture:

Pope Francis skipped the Vatican’s official meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance Saturday, instead having his No. 2 give the vice president a lecture on compassion, according to a Vatican statement. Pope Francis was absent from Vance’s conversation with Cardinal Pietro Parolin. However, the statement said 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.”

It called for “serene collaboration” between the White House and the Catholic Church in the United States—a seeming hint to the tensions that have brewed between the two since President Donald Trump took office. A statement from Vance’s office about the meeting, however, did not include migration among the topics of conversation.

It said the two discussed “the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world” as well as Trump’s “commitment to restoring world peace,” Bloomberg reported.

Inside Vatican sources told Sky News that Vance did briefly meet with the Pope at his residence, but no details of their conversation have been made public.

Pope Francis has repeatedly rebuked the president’s mass deportation effort, calling it a “disgrace” and a “grave sin.” The pontiff has also specifically confronted Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, having converted in 2019. Without mentioning the VP by name, the Pope corrected a Catholic concept Vance had invoked to defend the administration’s deportations, ordo amoris (order of love). In a February letter, Francis pointedly explained, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.” Vance acknowledged the Pope’s criticism, calling himself a “baby Catholic” and admitting that there are “things about the faith that I don’t know.”

[From The Daily Beast]

It sounds like Francis – and the pope’s courtiers – understood that Vance was only there for a photo-op, not for actual dialogue or faith. So Franny denied him the photo-op on Saturday, only to relent on Easter Sunday. Franny and Vance met Easter morning, with a translator in the room. I guess Usha didn’t want to come to any of those photo-ops. I also wonder why Francis relented, or maybe it was like the situation with King Charles and Camilla, where they likely demanded the photo by any means necessary, and then tried to play it like Frances was dying to see them.

Note: I wrote all of this before Pope Francis passed away. Pope Francis passed away less than 24 hours after meeting Vance. Vance is America’s Liz Truss, confirmed.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.