Vance and Francis: Divergent values but shared ideas

Pope Francis is the spiritual leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics who preaches for a more open church and empathy for migrants. US Vice President JD Vance is a fervent Catholic convert determined to make his country a bastion of conservative values. After Vance met with the Vatican's second-highest official — secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin — on Saturday, there was still no word of a possible engagement with the convalescing pontiff, who is recovering at 88 from life-threatening pneumonia. With Rome celebrating Easter — the most sacred event on the calendar — Vatican and US officials remained tight-lipped about any possible meeting between Vance and Francis, or even if there already had been one.

Given a recent spat between Francis and US President Donald Trump's administration, such talks might be expected to be tense. There appears to be an ideological divide between Vance and Francis, but the number of points in which their views converge "are still quite numerous", said Francois Mabille, director of the Geopolitical Observatory of Religion at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) in Paris.

"There is the fight against gender theories, and also everything regarding religious freedom, as it is seen by Vance," Mabille told AFP. "The criticisms that he expressed when he came to Europe are criticisms that we find in the administration" of Pope Francis.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance veered off topic to slam the "retreat" in Europe of free speech and to accuse the continent of having a "big immigration problem".

That second area is one where the two hold very differing views and was a subject broached by Vance and Parolin during their meeting on Saturday. There was an "exchange of opinions" on that topic, according to a Vatican statement, which did not elaborate.

Yet with regards "the aspects of the war of values", the two men in fact share "a societal conservatism, opposed to abortion, opposed to wokeism, partly to homosexuality", said Mabille. He sees in Vance a convert illustrating "a Catholicism of combat for a post-liberal America".

One bone of contention between the two would be Vance's ties to the conservative fringe of the US Church opposed to Francis, but Mabille nonetheless sees areas of common ground, such as on issues including the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. "There could be an opportunity for the Holy See to make itself heard again," he said, with the pope's relentless calls for peace so far falling on deaf ears.

It would therefore be in the interests of both men to brush their differences under the carpet, particularly on the thorny issue of migrants. In February, Francis drew the wrath of the White House for condemning Trump's plans for the mass expulsion of migrants, describing it as a "major crisis".

Last year, he called hostile attitudes towards migrants "madness" and criticised right-wing American Catholic figures for their overly conservative positions. Vance, 40, a former soldier who converted to Catholicism in his mid-30s, has adopted a tone reminiscent of European far-right groups when discussing immigration. He did not hesitate to openly criticise the Conference of American Catholic Bishops when it denounced the Trump administration's policies towards migrants. In a January interview with Fox News, Vance even claimed his stance on migration was Christian.

"You love your family, and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus (on) and prioritise the rest of the world," he said. There is another subject where the pope and Vance take wildly differing stances: Islam.

"There is a defence of Christian civilisation by Christian nationalists, and also Vance and Trump," said Mabille. "And we do not find that, obviously, in Francis who has a policy of openness and dialogue."

Vance, like Trump, is also vehemently opposed to "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion" policies, which aim to promote equal opportunities by taking into account ethnic origin, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

The pope, for his part, has worked since his election in 2013 to open the Church to women, whom he has promoted to positions of responsibility at the Vatican, and to homosexuals, whose couples can now be blessed.