Vatican progressives wary as Trump’s hardline Catholic deputy visits Holy See

ROME — JD Vance could be in for an uncomfortable encounter with the upper echelons of the Catholic Church, as the U.S. vice president concludes a whistle-stop diplomatic visit to the Eternal City. 

On Saturday, Vance, accompanied by his wife and three children, sailed down Vatican City’s sumptuous main thoroughfare, Via della Conciliazione, to meet with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis’s top diplomat, having met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.

So far, Vance has only met with Parolin, and not Francis himself. Still, Vatican officials do not rule out an Easter visit with the pontiff, who, despite the lingering effects of a serious respiratory illness, was able to meet the United Kingdom’s King Charles III last week.

But among the pope’s allies there is wariness of Vance, a Catholic convert with a traditionalist bent who has frequently clashed with Francis’s own progressive-tinted agenda.

“The pope has no great love for neither Vance nor Trump,” said one person close to Francis. “He has positions which are against the social doctrine of the Church, for migration, and human rights, and so on.”

At the same time, two people close to the pontiff acknowledged, Francis himself does not shy away from confrontation with people who disagree with him, so is unlikely to snub Vance on those grounds. Another acknowledged that Francis does not like to show “weakness.”

Clashes between the two worldviews already played out earlier this year, after the vice president invoked the theological concept of Ordo Amoris, which relates to divine love, to justify his boss’s deportation of migrants, drawing a rare official rebuke from the Holy See. 

Another concern is that he might use the encounter to launch an attack on the Vatican, in the same vein as his blistering criticism of Europe and Brussels earlier this year at the Munich Security Conference. However, since then, Vance has adopted a more conciliatory tone, praising Francis for looking after his flock.

Details of the encounter remain vague. A press statement shortly after the meeting between Vance and Parolin described it as “cordial” and said the two exchanged views on migrants, prisoners, refugees, countries afflicted by war, and the humanitarian situation worldwide.

According to people familiar with Vatican thinking, that likely meant that Parolin discussed the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID, a move seen in Vatican circles as an affront to the Church’s charitable efforts, and reiterated the pope’s opposition to Trump’s migration policy. Over the course of his papacy, Francis has repeatedly urged world leaders to treat migrants with dignity, frequently drawing criticism from conservatives.

The visit comes at a sensitive moment. With the pope’s health still in question, Vatican officials are leery at the prospect of powerful American Catholic conservatives trying to influence any future conclave. U.S. Catholics are also financially powerful, said one high-level cleric, which presents a danger at a time the Vatican is suffering from a steepening financial crisis. 

On top of that, the meeting comes under the shadow of intense negotiations between the EU and the U.S. after Trump slapped the bloc with 10 percent tariffs on all exports, offering 90 days to negotiate a trade deal before he increases the levies to 20 percent. On Thursday, Meloni herself took a trip to the White House in a bid to convince Trump to work with Europe, although the feeling in Rome is that while she charmed the president, she ultimately came home empty handed.

Vance’s visit comes at a sensitive moment, with the pope’s health still in question. | Pool picture by Kenny Holsten/AFP via Getty Images

During his visit to Rome Friday, Vance largely reiterated his boss’s position, affirming the strong ties between Italy and the U.S. and confirming that negotiations over tariffs would take place between Washington and Brussels. “In practical terms, I think nothing has changed so far,” said one Italian official. “However, from a political standpoint, she proved to be able to have a decent, normal, respectful discussion with Trump … not exactly something very common among European politicians in these days.”

The diplomatic prospects for the visit to the Vatican are less clear. Some have suggested that Parolin — who is seen as less flashy, and more moderate, than Francis, despite broadly sharing his views — might be more amenable to Vance’s position. 

But Parolin too is in an awkward position. The diplomat, a shrewd pragmatist and one of Francis’s longest surviving allies, is seen as a more moderate figure by critics of the pontiff. But whispers that Parolin was being set up to succeed Francis during the days of the pope’s sickness — the cardinal played an outsize role, leading several prayer sessions outside St. Peter’s — amplified speculation that he was himself making a bid. That prompted unease in some quarters of the Holy See, with some seeking to rein him in, said the person quoted above, though others insisted Parolin’s loyalty was never in question.

As for the pope himself, his health is said to be slowly improving after the long bout of pneumonia. His return to the Vatican after his extended stay at Gemelli Hospital in northern Rome follows an internal dispute among the pope’s advisers over whether he should resign — allowing him to rest and potentially return to health — or remain in power to further consolidate his legacy, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Francis ultimately chose to remain in his post, despite anxieties that his weakened state would see him “ruled by the Curia,” the Vatican bureaucracy, one of them added.

But even with the pope back in his place, that has done little to assuage those concerned about the storm arriving from Washington.

“It’s a bit bad to come on Good Friday, when the Church is celebrating the main mysteries of the faith,” said the high-ranking Church official quoted above. “He could come as a pilgrim, but that would require some humility, which I don’t think he has.”