VP Vance, Family Join Good Friday Liturgy At Vatican Between Worldwide Meetings

Vice President JD Vance and his family attended the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica between meetings with Italian and Holy See officials.

The second family arrived for the solemn two-hour Catholic service in the afternoon of the first day of their seven-day trip to Italy, Vatican City and India. The vice president was “tending to and instructing his children — picking them up and holding them at times throughout the extended standing portion of the Passion story being sung in Latin,” according to a White House press pool report.

I’m grateful every day for this job, but particularly today where my official duties have brought me to Rome on Good 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…

— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 18, 2025

Since Pope Francis, 88, is recovering from double pneumonia after a 38-day hospitalization, the role of celebrant of the liturgy commemorating the crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus Christ was delegated to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches. Following Vatican custom, the preacher of the papal household, Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, delivered the homily, reflecting how Christ is “the anchor of our hope.”

US Vice President JD Vance and his family are seated inside St. Peter’s Basilica for the Celebration of the Passion of Our Lord. #GoodFriday pic.twitter.com/3nOpOpcJdH

— Colm Flynn (@colmflynnire) April 18, 2025

TOPSHOT – U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance attend the celebration of the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday as part of the Holy Week, at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on April 18, 2025. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images)

Vance arrived in Rome earlier that morning for a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Meloni became the first European leader Thursday to meet with President Donald Trump in the White House following his April 2 Liberation Day tariff announcement. “I’ve been missing you,” Meloni reportedly joked to Vance, with the pair having met in the Oval Office roughly 17 hours earlier.

Oggi, a Palazzo Chigi, ho ricevuto il Vicepresidente degli Stati Uniti d’America J.D. Vance. Italia e Stati Uniti continuano a rafforzare la loro cooperazione su tutti i principali dossier internazionali. Un’amicizia solida, una partnership strategica. pic.twitter.com/Pj1Ir1EmlA

— Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) April 18, 2025

“She could’ve called me a jerk and I wouldn’t know!”

US Vice President JD Vance says Italian is ‘the most beautiful language imaginable’, joking with Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, as he begins his Easter visit in Rome.https://t.co/TC2ROCL7wW

📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/8FLah5j1sa

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 18, 2025

The vice president’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, described Vance to the Daily Caller as “grateful for the opportunity to visit some of Rome’s amazing cultural and religious sites with his family during Holy Week.”

While Vance is expected to meet on Holy Saturday with the Holy See’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, it remains unclear if it will be possible to meet with a weakened Pope Francis. Vance is also expected to attend Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican on his final day in Rome.

The pope, having occasionally clashed with Trump since his first presidential campaign — after meeting the president May 24, 2017 — criticized the administration’s mass deportation plans in a Feb. 10 letter to the bishops of the United States. (RELATED: Pope Francis Congratulates Trump On Historic Inauguration Despite Blasting Key Policy As ‘Disgrace’ Hours Earlier)

“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,” the supreme pontiff wrote.

“All the Christian faithful and people of good will are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa,” he continued. (RELATED: Bishop Says Catholic Teaching Does Not Support ‘Open Border Policy’)

The pope also responded in the letter to a statement Vance made in a Jan. 30 interview implying the Christian concept of love of neighbor begins close to home, linking that to the administration’s positions on border security and deportations of illegal migrants. His Holiness, however, said love of one’s neighbor implies “a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

Just google “ordo amoris.” Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense. Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone? https://t.co/otvv5g1wFN

— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 30, 2025

Vance acknowledged the pope’s criticism in a speech at the Feb. 28 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast before defending the administration’s position.

“I try to be humble as best I can when I talk about the faith in — publicly, because, of course, I’m not always going to get it right, and I don’t want my inadequacies in describing our faith to fall back on the faith itself,” he admitted, citing his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church and Aug. 11, 2019 baptism. “I don’t try to comment on every single Catholic issue. … But as Michael Corleone said in ‘The Godfather’, sometimes, ‘they pull me back in.’ Sometimes I can’t help but spout off — I am a politician, after all, ladies and gentlemen.”

Vance: “‘One of the things I love about Catholicism is that it’s very old. I take a longer view. Are things more daunting than they were in the mid-19th century? In the Dark Ages? Is it as daunting as having a second pope at Avignon? I don’t think so.’” https://t.co/CUTsrF2Tpb

— The American Conservative (@amconmag) August 14, 2019

While the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sued the administration over funding cuts for nongovernmental organizations — including the USCCB — serving the needs of migrants, they also praised its actions to confront runaway gender ideology and government threats to religious freedom.

“This is a painful end to a life-sustaining partnership the Catholic Church in the U.S. has had with our government and that has spanned decades across administrations of both political parties.”

From the Most Rev. Timothy P. Broglio, president of @USCCB: https://t.co/DHeHmZ0Y1D

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) April 9, 2025

Vance previously celebrated his Catholic faith by revealing a prayer he recited before the Oct. 1 vice-presidential debate with the Democratic VP nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Following the Trump–Vance 2024 electoral victory, the then-junior Ohio senator stated he was even more proud that his seven-year-old son, Ewan, was baptized into the Christian faith.

A friend asked me how nervous I was on a scale of 1 to 10. The answer? 11.

A priest friend sent me this prayer before I went on stage. I share it in the hopes someone will find it as meaningful as I did.

“O Ineffable Creator, who, from the treasures of Your wisdom, have…

— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 2, 2024

He also received ashes on the forehead from a priest outside Air Force Two following an Ash Wednesday visit to the Texas border town of Eagle Pass on March 5.

Vice President JD Vance received ashes on his forehead from a priest on Ash Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/VT19dn2BKo

— The American Conservative (@amconmag) March 6, 2025

Vance later gave a Saint Patrick’s Day tour of the White House to the priest who baptized him, Dominican Father Henry Stephan.