Rome
Cnn
–
US vice-president JD Vance met senior officials for the Vatican officials on Saturday who follows the strong criticism of Pope Francis of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
The Vatican said that at the meeting, an “exchange of opinions” had taken place concerning migrants, refugees and prisoners.
The vice-president, Catholic, visited Rome with his family during the Easter weekend and attended a Service on Good Friday in the Saint-Pierre basilica.
On Saturday morning, he met Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state of Saint-Siège and the Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Vatican. Any meeting with Pope Francis, who continues to recover from a double pneumonia, has not been confirmed.
The meeting on Saturday represents the first talks in person between the Holy See and the second presidency Trump and occurs in the middle of the tensions between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Trump administration.
“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, in particular with regard to countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners,” according to a release from the Vatican released after the meeting.
The Vance office then published its own reading, which declared that the vice-president and Paroline discussed “their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the fate of the Christian communities persecuted in the world and the commitment of President Trump to restore world peace.”
The declaration shared photos of the Vatican showing a smiling vance while welcoming the Paroline, a laughing of a table with officials of the Vatican, and Vance and his children walking in the Vatican alongside his famous Swiss guards.
Before the talks on Saturday, Parolin told the Italian newspaper the Repubblica that “the current American administration is very different from what we are used to and, in particular in the West, what we have been counting for many years.”
With regard to the thrust of the Trump administration for a cease-fire in Ukraine, the cardinal said that the Holy See “clearly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” and that “it is up to the Ukrainians themselves to decide what they are willing to negotiate or potentially conceded from their point of view.”
Just before being hospitalized in mid-February, Francis published a reprimand of the Immigration policy of the Trump administration and refuted the use by the vice-president of a theological concept, “Ordo Amoris” (“Order of Love” or “Order of Charity”), to defend the approach of the administration.
“The real” Ordo Amoris “which must be promoted is that which we discover by constantly meditating on the parable of” good Samaritan “, that is to say by meditating on love which builds an open fraternity to all, without exception,” wrote the Pope in a letter to the American bishops.
The Vatican also expressed his concern about the USAID cuts imposed since January, while an American bishop born in Salvador has called on Catholics to resist the deportations of the Trump administration, which included in the Salvador prisons.
But after the Catholic bishops criticized the Trump administration’s actions on immigration, Vance suggested that they were motivated by their “results” because the Catholic Church receives government money to help reinstall immigrants. The Conference of Bishops said in response that federal funds do not cover their costs for this work.
The Vatican Declaration published following the meeting with Vance said on Saturday that during talks, “hope was expressed for serene collaboration between the State and the Catholic Church in the United States, whose precious service to the most vulnerable persons has been recognized.”
Despite the tensions, the Vatican is used to speaking to leaders with whom he does not agree and the declaration noted “good bilateral relations existing between the Holy See and the United States of America, and the common commitment to protect the right to freedom of religion and conscience has been reiterated.”
