Vance meets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday after tangle over migration, gets chocolate eggs for kids

VATICAN CITY (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance met briefly with Pope Francis on Sunday to exchange Easter greetings, after they got into a long-distance tangle over the Trump administration's migrant deportation plans.

Francis, who is recovering from a near-fatal bout of pneumonia, received Vance in one of the reception rooms of the Vatican hotel where he lives. The 88-year-old pope offered the Catholic vice president three big chocolate Easter eggs for Vance's three young children, who did not attend, as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries.

“I know you have not been feeling great but it's good to see you in better health,” Vance told the pope. “Thank you for seeing me.”

Vance’s motorcade entered Vatican City through a side gate while Easter Mass was being celebrated in St. Peter’s Square. Francis had delegated the celebration of the Mass to another cardinal.

The Vatican said they met for a few minutes at the Domus Santa Marta “to exchange Easter greetings.”

Vance's office said the vice president “expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for inviting him to meet on Easter Sunday and for the hospitality the Vatican has extended to his family."

“I pray for you every day,” Vance said as he bid Francis farewell. “God bless you.”

In all, Vance’s motorcade was on Vatican territory for 17 minutes. The vice president later joined his family for Easter Mass at St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of the four pontifical basilicas in Rome. The Vances visited the tomb of the apostle St. Paul that is said to be located there.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, and the pope have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration’s plans to deport migrants en masse. Francis has made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy.

Just days before he was hospitalized in February, Francis blasted the deportation plans, warning that they would deprive migrants of their inherent dignity. In a letter to U.S. bishops, Francis also appeared to respond to Vance directly for having claimed that Catholic doctrine justified such policies.

Vance has acknowledged Francis’ criticism but has said he will continue to defend his views. During a Feb. 28 appearance at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Vance didn’t address the issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there are “things about the faith that I don’t know.”

Vance met Saturday with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

Vance’s office said he and Parolin “discussed their shared religious faith, Catholicism in the United States, the plight of persecuted Christian communities around the world, and President Trump’s commitment to restoring world peace.”

The Vatican, for its part, said there was an “exchange of opinions” including over migrants and refugees and current conflicts.

The Holy See has responded cautiously to the Trump administration while seeking to continue productive relations in keeping with its tradition of diplomatic neutrality. It has expressed alarm over the administration’s crackdown on migrants and cuts in international aid while insisting on peaceful resolutions to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

U.S. Vice President JD Vanc and his family arrives at Basilica Papale di San Paolo Fuori le Mura (Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls) to attend Easter mass, in Rome, Italy, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Vice President JD Vanc and his family arrives at Basilica Papale di San Paolo Fuori le Mura (Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls) to attend Easter mass, in Rome, Italy, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, centre, his wife Usha and their children arrive at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside The Walls in Rome, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, centre, his wife Usha and their children arrive at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside The Walls in Rome, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis appears on the central lodge of St. Peter's Basilica to bestow the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and the world) blessing at the end of the Easter mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sunday, April 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis receives U.S. Vice President JD Vance before bestowing the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sunday, April 20, 2025. At center the head of the papal houshold Bishop Leonardo Sapienza. (Vatican Media via AP, HO)

Pope Francis receives U.S. Vice President JD Vance, left, before bestowing the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sunday, April 20, 2025. At center the head of the papal houshold Bishop Leonardo Sapienza. (Vatican Media via AP, HO)

From left, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, his daughter Mirabel, his wife Usha, and their sons Ewan and Vivek at the Vatican, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP, HO)

The motorcade of U.S. Vice President JD Vance is seen en route to Vatican, in Rome, Italy, Sunday, April 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/Pool Photo via AP)

President Donald Trump’s administration released a lengthy review of transgender health care on Thursday that advocates for a greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming medical care for youths with gender dysphoria.

The 409-page Health and Human Services report questions standards for the treatment of transgender youth issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and is likely to be used to bolster the government’s abrupt shift in how to care for a subset of the population that has become a political lightning rod.

This new “best practices” report is in response to an executive order Trump issued days into his second term that says the federal government must not support gender transitions for anyone under age 19.

“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”

The report sharply contradicts guidance from the American Medical Association, which has urged states not to ban gender-affirming care for minors, saying that “empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.”

HHS said its report, however, is not clinical guidance and does not make any policy recommendations. The report is also limited to children and does not address treatment for adults.

Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. includes supportive talk therapy and can — but does not always — involve puberty blockers or hormone treatment.

The Trump administration’s report says “many” U.S. adolescents who are transgender or are questioning their gender identity have received surgeries or medications. In fact, such treatments remain rare as a portion of the population. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 adolescents in the U.S. received gender-affirming medication — puberty blockers or hormones — according to a five-year study of those on commercial insurance released this year. About 1,200 patients underwent gender-affirming surgeries in one recent year, according to another study.

Many U.S. adolescents may decide not to proceed with gender-affirming medications or surgeries. Medical association recommendations say the best care includes developing a plan with medical experts and family members that includes psychotherapy for each young person, according to doctors who have worked with transgender youth.

“It’s very chilling to see the federal government injecting politics and ideology into medical science,” said Shannon Minter, the legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Minter said the report could create fear for families seeking care and for medical providers.

“It’s Orwellian. It is designed to confuse and disorient,” Minter added.

Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who works on sexual orientation and gender identity issues, said the report is one-sided and “magnifies the risks of treatments while minimizing benefits of the treatments.”

A judge has blocked key parts of Trump’s order, which includes denying research and educational grants for medical schools, hospitals and other institutions that provide gender-affirming care to people 18 or younger. Several hospitals around the country ceased providing care. The White House said Monday that since Trump took office, HHS has eliminated 215 grants totaling $477 million for research or education on gender-affirming treatment.

Most Republican-controlled states have also adopted bans or restrictions on gender-affirming care. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling is pending after justices heard arguments in December in a case about whether states can enforce such laws.

The Jan. 28 executive order is among several administration policies aimed at denying the existence of transgender people. Trump also has ordered the government to identify people as either male or female rather than accept a concept of gender in which people fall along a spectrum, remove transgender service members from the military, and bar transgender women and girls from sports competitions that align with their gender. This month, HHS issued guidance to protect whistleblowers who report doctors or hospitals providing gender-affirming care. Judges are blocking enforcement of several of the policies.

This latest HHS report, which Trump called for while campaigning last year, represents a reversal in federal policy. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is part of HHS, found that no research had determined that behavioral health interventions could change someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The 2023 update to the 2015 finding is no longer on the agency’s website.

While Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly pledged to practice “radical transparency,” his department did not release any information about who authored the study. The administration says the new report will go through a peer-review process and will only say who contributed to the report after “in order to help maintain the integrity of this process.”

The report says that medical groups have relied on medical treatment rather than behavioral therapy for transgender youth partly because of a “mischaracterization of such approaches as ‘conversion therapy,’” which about half the states have banned for minors.

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has said that evidence shows conversion therapies inflict harm on young people, including elevated rates of suicidal ideation.

FILE - Children hold signs and transgender pride flags as supporters of transgender rights rally by the Supreme Court, Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

File - Supporters of transgender rights rally by the Supreme Court, Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it at an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)