Pope Francis’s passing: Why JD Vance may be feeling awful about spat with Vatican

Their differing ideologies aside, US Vice President JD Vance may be left with mixed feelings that he may have been the last world leader to have met Pope Francis, the 88-year-old religious leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. It was definitely not the best of meetings.

 

Because, just a day after their short meeting on Sunday at the Vatican, Pope Francis passed away. “At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father,” Cardinal Farrell, the Vatican ‘camerlengom’ said in a statement on Monday. ‘Camerlengom’ is the Church official mandated with ordinary affairs at the Vatican until the election of a new pope.

 

Vance’s meeting with the Pope was in the backdrop of two distinctly opposing positions between the Trump regime and the Pope, with the latter having been vocal about the need to adopt a humanistic approach towards migrants. This sharply contrasted against Trump’s crackdown on immigration followed by mass deportations.

 

In an unprecedented step, Pope Francis had written letters directly to US bishops refuting Vance’s claims that the Catholic Church doctrines actually justified Trump administration’s anti-migrant policies.

 

Tariff issue and likely bilateral trade deal not on Vance’s mind?

 

That aside, Vance would primarily be focused on his four-day-long largely personal India visit that takes place in the backdrop of a looming tariff standoff between the two countries.

 

But why the tariff issue and a likely bilateral trade deal between India and the US may not be on Vance’s India-visit agenda is because Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is already on a five-day-long visit to the US where she is to meet the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent besides officials at the US Trade Representative’s office.

 

Sitharaman is also scheduled to interact with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials besides a meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank governors.

 

Vance is a staunch and out-spoken proponent of President Trump’s policies on the issue of migration or of the centrality of India in the overall Indo-Pacific policy of the US.

 

Moreover, with the Trump administration adopting a confrontational posture with long-time allies Japan and South Korea over tariff issues, India’s importance in the US’s Indo-Pacific policy obviously gets a boost.

 

India’s strategic location and growing economy with a huge market may be the perfect recipe for the US in its effort to counter and encircle a rising China. Vance, with his Indian-origin wife Usha in tow, may like to see ‘India biting the bait’ figure at the top of his agenda during his visit. That—of committing India and pitting against China—may be the real purpose of his visit.

World