Vice President JD Vance attended Good Friday services at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Friday as part of his trip to Italy, where he is also slated to engage in continued discussions about tariffs with Italy.

Vance, a Catholic convert, attended the services with his wife and three children. He was scheduled to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on Saturday.

"I'm grateful every day for this job, but particularly today where my official duties have brought me to Rome on Good Friday," Vance wrote in an X post on Friday. "I had a great meeting with Prime Minister Meloni and her team, and will head to church soon with my beautiful family in this beautiful city. I wish all Christians all over the world, but particularly those back home in the US, a blessed Good Friday. He died so that we might live."

This marks the vice president's third trip abroad since assuming office on January 20. After meeting with leaders in Italy, Vance will travel to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While in Rome, JD Vance is slated to meet with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State.

While Pope Francis was absent from both the Good Friday service and the evening Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum, Vatican officials did not rule out the possibility of a meeting between the pontiff and Vance. The 88-year-old pope has scaled back his public appearances as he continues to recover from a nearly fatal bout of double pneumonia, however, he did meet with King Charles III. According to the Associated Press, his participation in the remainder of the Easter services remains uncertain.

The vast majority of American Catholics supported the Trump-Vance ticket in 2024, although church leaders at the Vatican have criticized the Trump administration for its immigration enforcement efforts, including Pope Francis.

In February, Pope Francis criticized the administration’s immigration enforcement plans, including deportations of illegal immigrants. Vance has defended those efforts by citing Catholic doctrine, specifically the concept of “ordo amoris,” which he said emphasizes a hierarchy of care beginning with family, then neighbors, then community, citizens, and finally others.

Francis wrote a letter on February 10 where he rebutted Vance’s claims.

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extends to other persons and groups,” he wrote. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."

While Vance acknowledged criticism by Francis, he stood by his positions.

Earlier in the day, Vance met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Chigi Palace in Rome to discuss trade and tariffs. Upon greeting him, Meloni joked, “I’ve been missing you,” referencing their meeting the previous day in the Oval Office.

During that White House meeting, President Trump praised Italy’s strict stance on migration and reaffirmed his administration’s tariff policies. A joint statement from the White House and Meloni’s office confirmed that Trump plans to visit Italy “in the very near future,” saying, “There is also consideration to hold, on such occasion, a meeting between US and Europe.”