US vice-president JD Vance, who arrived in New Delhi on Monday morning on a four-day tour of India, paid tribute to Pope Francis following the pontiff’s death, recalling their recent meeting on Easter Sunday.
"My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him," Vance wrote on X. "I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill."
Vance, a convert to Catholicism, was in Rome over the weekend for diplomatic talks with Vatican officials before departing for India. His meeting with the Pope was not originally scheduled.
In his tribute, Vance also shared a link to one of his favourite homilies by Pope Francis — a March 2020 sermon on fear and faith delivered during the early days of the Covid pandemic.
On Saturday, Vance met with the Vatican’s secretary of state and secretary for relations with states and international organisations. According to a Vatican statement, the "cordial talks" affirmed the "good existing bilateral relations" and a "common commitment" to defending religious freedom.
Pope Francis, the first Latin American to lead the Roman Catholic Church, passed away on Monday at the age of 88.
"This morning at 07:35 local time (05:35 GMT), the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father," Cardinal Kevin Farrell said in a statement published on the Vatican’s Telegram channel.
Just a day earlier, the Pope had appeared in St Peter’s Square to offer Easter greetings to thousands of worshippers. He had recently been discharged from hospital after a five-week stay for an infection that developed into double pneumonia.
