ROME (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday ahead of the U.S.-led push for ceasefire negotiations in Russia's war in Ukraine.
Vance gave the first American pope a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump and the first lady inviting him. The Chicago-born pope took the letter and put it on his desk and was heard saying “at some point,” in the video footage of the meeting provided by Vatican Media.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, also gave the Augustinian pope a copy of two of St. Augustine's most seminal works, “The City of God" and "On Christian Doctrine,” the vice president's office said. Another gift: A Chicago Bears T-shirt with Leo's name on it.
“As you can probably imagine, people in the United States are extremely excited about you,” Vance told Leo as they exchanged gifts.
Leo gave Vance a bronze sculpture with the words in Italian “Peace is a fragile flower,” and a coffee-table sized picture book of the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace. Leo noted that Francis had chosen not to live in them and added, “And I may live in, but it's not totally decided.”
Vance led the U.S. delegation to Sunday's formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope. Joining him at the meeting on Monday was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson said. The two then also met with the Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
“There was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” according to a Vatican statement after their meeting.
The White House said Vance and Gallagher “discussed religious freedom, the persecution of Christians around the world and the shared commitment of President Trump and Pope Leo XIV to stop the killing in Ukraine and the Middle East.”
According to the photo of the visits released by the Vatican, Leo's brother, Louis Prevost, a self-described “MAGA-type,” and his wife, Deborah, joined the delegation during the visit.
The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has offered to host any peace talks while continuing humanitarian efforts to facilitate prisoner swaps and reunite Ukrainian children taken by Russia.
Trump said Monday that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin ceasefire negotiations after what he described as an “excellent” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that lasted more than two hours. He noted that the Vatican “as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations.”
‘Every effort’ on Ukraine
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, is a Chicago-born Augustinian missionary who spent the bulk of his ministry in Chiclayo, a commercial city of around 800,000 on Peru’s northern Pacific coast.
Before his election, Prevost shared news articles on X that were critical of the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants.
Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the Argentine pope's April 21 death. The two had tangled over migration, with Francis publicly rebuking the Trump administration's deportation plan and correcting Vance's theological justification for it.
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Nicole Winfield And Jacquelyn Martin, The Associated Press
