Vance and Rubio to travel to the Vatican for Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass in Vatican Metropolis on Sunday, the White Home introduced Thursday.

NBC Information earlier reported that the 2 high officers have been anticipated to attend the mass.

Leo is the primary American pope, marking a serious second for American Catholics.

Vance, who’s Catholic, met briefly with Pope Francis earlier than his dying final month.

The vp, Rubio and second woman Usha Vance will probably be among the many U.S. delegation attending the Mass marking Leo’s formal set up as pope in St. Peter’s Sq., based on the Vatican.

Vance and Rubio’s plans have been first reported by Bloomberg.

Leo, who was born Robert Prevost in Chicago, was elected pope by a conclave final week.  

Earlier than his elevation from cardinal to pope, Prevost sometimes posted on social media, together with some messages that gave the impression to be important of Vance, President Donald Trump and their worldview.

He additionally posted hyperlinks to X highlighting tales important of the vp. In a single submit, he quoted the article’s headline: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

Vance, who transformed to Catholicism in 2019, congratulated Leo upon his election.  

“I’m sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church,” the vp wrote on X. “May God bless him!” 

Requested about his response to Leo’s ascendancy final week in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, Vance acknowledged their potential political variations whereas additionally downplaying them. 

“You know, people are asking, “Is he a conservative or is he a liberal? Will he attack President Trump and JD Vance on certain things?’ … And I guess my response to this is, it’s very hard to fit a 2,000-year-old institution into the politics of 2025 America,” Vance advised Hewitt. “I attempt not to try this.”

Vance continued, saying that he was “positive he’s going to say quite a lot of issues that I really like.”

“I’m positive he’ll say some issues that I disagree with, however I’ll proceed to wish for him and the church regardless of all of it and thru all of it, and that’ll be the best way that I deal with it,” the vice president said.

After Leo was announced as pope, Trump said in a post to Truth Social that his selection was “a Nice Honor for our Nation.”

“I stay up for assembly Pope Leo XIV,” Trump wrote at the time. “It is going to be a really significant second!”

The White House waded into controversy in the days leading up to the conclave, when Trump posted an artificial intelligence-generated image depicting himself as pope. The move generated backlash from some Catholics, who criticized the image as being in poor taste.

“There’s nothing intelligent or humorous about this picture, Mr. President,” the New York State Catholic Conference said in a post to X. Separately, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York told NBC News that the post “wasn’t good,” and former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said that the post “offends believers.”

Leo was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023 and has lived and labored in Peru.