By meeting with JD Vance, Pope Francis gave the Trump sycophant the photo op he wanted and appeased someone who defends crimes against humanity and violations of international law.
On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis met briefly with JD Vance, a fellow Catholic who has irreconcilable views on how migrants and other humans should be treated. This was a mistake by Francis and it will be viewed by Vance as a moral capitulation by the pope, who also made a second mistake by allowing cameras and giving the vice president the photo op he was looking for. Vance has supported the most egregious violations of due process, American law, international law, and human rights and dignity by supporting Trump policies that target immigrants and others in the United States like they are subhuman criminals without rights.
On Saturday, Pope Francis refused to meet with Vance and sent Cardinal Pietro Parolin to have a conversation with the vice president about compassion. This was a gracious way to greet Vance and a measured response to the visit based on Francis' deep-seated differences with Vance regarding whether humans should be treated justly with both respect and dignity. On its own, a lecture on morality by a deputy of the pope would have sent a strong message by the Vatican to the White House that while Vance was welcomed as a fellow Catholic, the policies promoted and defended by the vice president are incompatible with Christian compassion and unworthy of an audience with the pontiff.
Giving Vance any audience sends a bad message by Pope Francis. It weakens his moral high ground and does not exact a price for the current Trump policies that Vance supports, which includes the deportation of millions of immigrants from the United States using means that violate the rule of law and basic morality. This is to say nothing of other disagreements between Francis and Vance like the cutting of American welfare programs both domestically and abroad.
Even an atheist like me knows what the pope does matters. And while I may have irreconcilable differences of my own with Pope Francis, the two of us agree on treating people with both justice and compassion. That is more than JD Vance can say.