US Vice President JD Vance has arrived in Rome for meetings at the Vatican and with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, fresh from her visit to the White House a day earlier.
Meloni, who has positioned herself as a bridge between the US and Europe, received praise from President Donald Trump for her crackdown on migration during a meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Vance, who attended the meetings, is scheduled to meet with Meloni later on Friday and plans to attend Easter weekend events at the Vatican.
He was scheduled to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the White House said.
No meeting with Pope Francis has been announced.
The 88-year-old pontiff has sharply scaled back his work schedule as he recovers from a near-fatal case of double pneumonia.
Francis and Vance, a Catholic convert, have tangled over migration and the Trump administration’s plans to deport migrants en masse.
Just days before he was hospitalised, Francis blasted the administration’s deportation plans, warning that they would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity.
In a letter to US bishops, Francis also apparently responded to Vance directly for having claimed that Catholic doctrine justified such policies.
