Just hours before Pope Francis' death on Easter Monday, US Vice President JD Vance became the last known world official to meet the pontiff alive. It was a brief but poignant encounter that now carries historic weight.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, met the 88-year-old Pope at his Vatican residence on Easter Sunday morning. According to a Vatican statement, the private audience lasted only a few minutes, during which the two exchanged Easter greetings. Though visibly frail and confined to a wheelchair, Pope Francis was reportedly in good spirits, offering Vance chocolate Easter eggs for his children and rosaries as gifts.
