Donald Trump and JD Vance both issued separate, praising statements following the death of Pope Francis, despite previous clashes of opinion with the Holy Father.
“Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!” wrote the president, while his deputy – who had visited the pontiff on Sunday – recalled the “beautiful” homily that Francis had given to mark Easter.
“The pope has no great love for neither Vance nor Trump,” a source close to the pope said, ahead of the meeting with Vance, per Politico. “He has positions which are against the social doctrine of the Church, for migration, and human rights, and so on.”
Francis made welcoming migrants a key theme of his nearly 12-year papacy, and he previously criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, plans to cut foreign aid and domestic welfare programs.
During the 2016 election, when asked about Trump’s plans to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, he said Trump was “not Christian” in his opinion.
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said in answer to a specific question about Trump’s views. “This is not in the gospel.”
Shortly before Trump’s second inauguration in January, Francis issued a statement condemning proposed immigration “raids,” describing the concept as a “disgrace” – a departure from his usual publicly apolitical stance.
In February, the pope wrote an open letter to the bishops of the U.S. in which he reiterated his views, calling Trump’s plans a “major crisis” for the United States.
“The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” he wrote.
The letter also seemed to rebut a theological concept used by Vance to defend immigration crackdowns using the Christian concept of “ordo amoris.” The concept (order amores translates as order of love) was defined by Vance as a hierarchy of duties that prioritizes immediate obligations to one’s family or community over more distant needs.
“The true ordo amoris that must be promoted [is] love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception,” Francis wrote in his open letter.
The pope reiterated his condemnation of anti-immigrant positions even in his final message before his death, which was read out by an aide following his meeting with Vance. “How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants,” he wrote.
Francis also condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” caused by Israel’s 18-month war in Gaza. “I express my closeness to the sufferings… of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” the message read.
