India - Vice President has shared his thoughts on being one of the last people to meet with Pope Francis just hours before his passing.
Vice President JD Vance (r.) recently opened up on how he felt about meeting Pope Francis only hours before the Catholic leader passed away. © Collage: Attila KISBENEDEK & Ting Shen / AFP
On Wednesday, by a reporter what it felt like "knowing you were one of the last officials to meet with him before he died?"
"Yeah, I've thought a lot about that," Vance responded. "I mean, it's pretty crazy, actually, and obviously when I saw him, I didn't know that he had less than 24 hours still on this earth.
"I think it was a great blessing, but, you know, he saw a lot of people," he continued. "I think he affected a lot of lives. And I try to just remember that I was lucky I got to shake his hand."
Vance met with the Pope in Rome on Sunday, before the Catholic leader only hours later from a stroke and cardiac arrest.
Pope Francis has been an of President 's aggressive deportation efforts, leading Vance, who is a Catholic convert, to repeatedly clash with the pontiff.
As the world continues to mourn the loss, social media users have been sharing countless memes insinuating that Vance inadvertently "killed" the Pope.
Vance also told reporters the Pope had voiced "disagreements" during their meeting, but he refused to "soil the man's legacy by talking about politics."
