Vance and Francis had publicly disagreed in recent months on immigration policies and other aspects of church teaching, so an Easter Sunday meeting with the pope, in what proved to be the final hours of his life,

JD Vance paid tribute to Pope Francis on Monday, hours after news broke that the pope had died at 88. The vice president of the United States was one of the last people to meet with Francis before his death, and said that he was “obviously very ill” during their encounter.