Summary

Pope Francis skipped the Vatican’s official meeting with J.D. Vance Saturday, instead having his No. 2 give the vice president a lecture on compassion, according to a Vatican statement.

The statement said there was “an exchange of opinions on the international situation… with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners.”

Pope Francis has repeatedly rebuked the president’s mass deportation effort, calling it a “disgrace” and a “grave sin.”

The Pope corrected a Catholic concept Vance had invoked to defend the administration’s deportations, ordo amoris (order of love). In a February letter, Francis pointedly explained, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”