Vice President JD Vance Monday led an American refrain of tributes to the late Pope Francis after being one of many final folks to fulfill with the ailing pontiff earlier than his demise.
Vance, an grownup convert to Roman Catholicism, stated he was gratified to have the prospect to change into the final world chief to fulfill with Francis in his remaining hours.
“My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him,” Vance tweeted. “I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill.”
“May God rest his soul,” Vance added.
Vance, who joined the Catholic church in 2019, met with a wheelchair-bound Francis for a couple of minutes on Easter Sunday, his final day alive. Francis had beforehand sparred with the conservative Republican over his harsh anti-immigrant stances.
President Trump and former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama additionally mourned the lack of the non secular chief of the world’s greater than 1 billion Catholics.
“May God Bless him and all who loved him,” Trump wrote in a 14-word publish on his social media website.
Biden, the second Catholic president after former President John F. Kennedy, paid a heartfelt tribute to Francis.
He praised the late pontiff as a groundbreaking peacemaker who tirelessly fought poverty and preached towards the impression of local weather change.
“Above all, he was a Pope for everyone,” Biden tweeted with a photograph of his assembly with Francis. “He was the People’s Pope — a light of faith, hope, and love.”
Vatican Media by way of AP
President Joe Biden shakes fingers with Pope Francis as they meet on the Vatican in 2021. (Vatican Media by way of AP)
Obama targeted on Francis’ humility and his trademark want to keep away from pointless trappings of wealth and to serve the poor.
“He shook us out of our complacency and reminded us that we are all bound by moral obligations to God and one another,” Obama tweeted.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York)described Francis as “a beacon of light and hope against the darkness.”
Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries famous that Francis was the primary member of the Jesuit order and the primary Latino to function pope after centuries of European church leaders.
“His moral, visionary and groundbreaking legacy will live on,” Jeffries (D-New York) stated in an announcement.
Initially Printed: April 21, 2025 at 10:24 AM EDT
