Pope Leo XIV received the U.S. Vice President, JD Vance, in a private audience this morning, May 19, the Vatican said in a communique to the press. At the start of the meeting, Mr. Vance gave the pope a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump inviting him to visit the United States.
They met in the private library of the Apostolic Palace, where popes normally receive heads of state or government and other distinguished guests. A spokesperson for the vice president told reporters that after the private one-on-one encounter between the pope and the vice president, the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, joined them. They were later joined by their spouses and the larger U.S. delegation.
A photo showed Mr. Vance sitting across the desk from the pope in the private library, with Mr. Rubio at his side. Both Mr. Vance and Mr. Rubio are Catholics.
The papal audience came as no surprise; it is a tradition that the pope always receives the president or vice president of his own country in a private audience whenever they request it, as we have seen during the recent pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.
Leo XIV had greeted Mr. Vance and his wife, Usha, for the first time yesterday, May 18, in St. Peter’s Basilica, after the Mass for the Inauguration of the Roman Pontiff. Some media had reported that encounter as a snub to the vice president because it was brief, but it was in fact just normal protocol as the pope briefly met the members of the official state delegations from 156 countries immediately after the Mass, and this whole procedure took almost 90 minutes. Given the number of people to meet and the pope’s time constraint, each encounter had to be brief.
Today, however, was different. Mr. Vance arrived at the Vatican at 7:56 a.m. for the face-to-face meeting with the American born-pope. They were alone in the room, since both speak English and did not need interpreters. The Vatican press communique, as usual, does not mention what the two leaders discussed. It is reasonable to assume, however, that, among other things, they would have spoken about the issues raised by Leo XIV in his remarks before the Regina Coeli prayer at the end of Mass yesterday: the conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar. It is also possible that Leo, the son of migrants, may have raised the question of the deportation of migrants by the Trump administration, an issue that is of major concern to the Vatican and to the church in the United States and in other countries.
According to the Associated Press, Mr. Vance gave Pope Leo a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump inviting him to visit the United States. In video footage of the meeting from Vatican Media, the pope can be heard saying “at some point.” Mr. Vance also gave the pope copies of St. Augustine’s The City of God and On Christian Doctrine, according to the vice president’s office.
At the end of his audience with the Chicago-born pope, Mr. Vance surprised Leo by giving him a Chicago Bears jersey with "Pope Leo XIV" written on the back. “As you can probably imagine, people in the United States are extremely excited about you,” Mr. Vance told him.
The entire meeting of the vice-president with the pope, including with Mr. Rubio and later with their wives and delegation as well as the exchange of gifts, lasted 45 minutes.
Mr. Vance then met with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations, at the Secretariat of State. Mr. Rubio was also present at this meeting, though the Vatican statement does not mention it. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state, was not present, as he is in New York to receive an award for peace work.
Archbishop Gallagher had already met Mr. Vance with Cardinal Parolin on April 19, when Mr. Vance came to the Vatican with his wife and children for Holy Week ceremonies. During that visit, Mr. Vance was the last political leader to meet Pope Francis; he met him at 11:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning, April 20, just before the pope gave his final “Urbi et Orbi” blessing.
Referring to the conversation between Mr. Vance and Archbishop Gallagher, the Vatican statement described the talks as “cordial” and reported that they expressed “satisfaction at the good bilateral relations” between the Holy See and the United States.
It said they discussed “the collaboration between Church and State”—presumably meaning the church in the United States—“as well as some matters of special relevance to ecclesial life and religious freedom.” One could infer here that among other issues discussed were the problems the church in the United States is encountering in assisting migrants under the present administration, which is seeking to deport millions of undocumented migrants.
The Vatican statement concluded by reporting that “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.” There is little doubt that this discussion focused on violent conflicts, particularly in Gaza and Ukraine, where the pope and Vatican want the killing to stop now and negotiations for peace commence.
At the end of Mass, Pope Leo said, “In Gaza, the surviving children, families and elderly are reduced to starvation.” His words were particularly striking as Israel’s president Isaac Herzog and a 13-person Jewish delegation were present as he spoke. His words conveyed the Holy See’s deep concern that the enclave’s more than 2 million Palestinians are subjected to almost continuous attacks by Israel and have been deprived of the basic essentials of life, including food, clean water, medical supplies and shelter.
Pope Leo also spoke of the dramatic situation in “martyred Ukraine,” which Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, and continues to bomb daily. Ukraine “awaits negotiations for a just and lasting peace,” he said. After the inauguration Mass yesterday, the pope received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a private audience.
President Zelenskyy later wrote on X:
We are grateful to His Holiness for the audience. For millions of people around the world, the Pontiff is a symbol of hope for peace. The authority and voice of the Holy See can play an important role in bringing this war to an end.We thank the Vatican for its willingness to serve as a platform for direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. We are ready for dialogue in any format for the sake of tangible results. We appreciate the support for Ukraine and the clear voice in defense of a just and lasting peace.
Pope Leo is aware that President Donald Trump is trying to broker a ceasefire in that conflict and today will again talk by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. All this would have been part of the conversation during Mr. Vance’s two meetings in the Vatican.
