Vance and Francis have publicly disagreed in recent months on immigration policies and other aspects of church teaching, so an Easter Sunday meeting with the pope, in what proved to be the final hours of his life,

US Vice President JD Vance has been slated online after snapping a picture in the Vatican just hours before Pope Francis died. Vance, the right-hand man of Donald Trump, flew to visit the Pope before the head of the Catholic Church suddenly passed away from a cerebral stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure.

The Vatican said they met for a few minutes at the Domus Santa Marta “to exchange Easter greetings.” Vance and the pope have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration’s plans to deport migrants en masse.