Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks says Pope Francis's decision to meet while in frail health with Vice President JD Vance, with whom he was publicly disagreeing over U.S. immigration policy, is going to be "part of his legacy."

" I think that was very meaningful, given his frail health, that he would meet with the vice president," the Iowa Republican said Monday on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "And so I think that's going to be part of his legacy."

Meeks also acknowledged that the Pope, who died Monday from heart failure, will leave behind critics about his handling of the Church's sex-abuse scandal in which almost 1,700 priests and clergy have been accused of such  of crimes. But she asked the world to also remember his compassion for others should never be forgotten. 

"There are going to be others who say he didn't do enough when it came to the, you know, to the scourge of the church, when it came to young children, and to address those issues," she said. "But I really think the fact that he interacted with the world in a different way and was able to grow the church, I think, is extraordinarily important."=

Miller-Meeks also suggested a sort of divinity or fate in the 88-year-old Pope dying the day after Easter Sunday, during which he participated in a blessing at the Vatican's St Peter's Square, in Rome. It was his final public appearance.

"It was ... so becoming and so fitting that this would happen," she said. "We know that he has been in failing health. We actually didn't know if he would make it to Easter. And so for Catholics, for them to see the pontiff, the head of the church, to be able to give an address and then pass away, I think is very befitting."