Vice President JD Vance led the audience at the 20th National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in prayer for the ailing Pope Francis, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration policy.

Pope Francis continued his slow recovery from double pneumonia on Thursday, beating back speculation of an imminent death, resignation or conclave and signaling that he was still very much in charge, albeit in a weakened state.

A scholar of global Catholicism writes how Francis has opened the church to the outside world in ways no pope had done before.