Pope Leo XIV with Vice President JD Vance, his spouse Usha Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his spouse Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, on the event of their assembly on the Vatican, Monday.
Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media through AP
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Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media through AP
ROME — At a gathering between Vice President JD Vance and Pope Leo XIV on the Vatican on Monday, the vice chairman offered the primary U.S. pontiff — a Chicago native — with a Chicago Bears jersey, with “Pope Leo XIV” emblazoned in white and orange letters on the again. “Good selection,” the pope responded.
This primary formal assembly appeared a part of an effort by Washington to reset relations with the Vatican, after Leo’s predecessor Pope Francis repeatedly criticized President Trump’s migration coverage.
Now the diplomatic efforts to deliver a negotiated ceasefire to Ukraine might present a possibility for frequent floor. In these first days of his papacy, Leo has already known as for an “genuine and lasting peace” in Ukraine. President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday, as a part of what he has known as an try to cease the “massacre” of the battle in Ukraine.
Becoming a member of Vance, who transformed to Roman Catholicism in 2019, at Monday’s Vatican assembly with Pope Leo had been Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who can be Catholic, and the 2 U.S. officers’ wives. Vance delivered a letter from the president and first girl inviting the pope to go to the White Home, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt informed reporters Monday. The Vatican didn’t instantly reply to NPR’s request for remark concerning the invitation.
After the papal viewers, Vance met with officers on the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, the Church’s prime diplomatic workplace. A Vatican readout known as these talks “cordial.”
“There was an trade of views on some present worldwide points, calling for respect for humanitarian regulation and worldwide regulation in areas of battle and for a negotiated resolution between the events concerned,” it mentioned.
Earlier than his rise to the papacy, Cardinal Robert Prevost appeared to have shared information articles through an account on the social media platform X that had been important of the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants. The Vatican has not commented on whether or not the posts had been genuine. The account has since been eliminated. Final week, in his first deal with to world diplomats as pontiff, Pope Leo mentioned the dignity of migrants needed to be revered.
The late Pope Francis made immigrants and the poor a central focus of his papacy. He known as Trump’s plan to deport tens of millions of migrants a “shame.” And in early 2016, he famously declared Trump — then a Republican candidate for president — “not Christian” for his pledge to stop folks from crossing illegally into america by constructing a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Francis additionally rebuked Vance for calling on Christians to prioritize love for his or her households and countrymen over strangers and foreigners.
“Christian love is just not a concentric growth of pursuits that little by little extends to different individuals and teams,” Francis wrote in a letter to U.S. bishops after Vance’s remarks. “The true ordo amoris that have to be promoted is that which we uncover by meditating continually on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that’s, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, with out exception.”
Vance met with Pope Francis the day earlier than he died.
Each he and Rubio attended the inaugural Mass for Pope Leo on Sunday. At Vance’s assembly on Monday, he gave Leo two works by St. Augustine, The Metropolis of God and On Christian Doctrine, the vice chairman’s workplace mentioned. Leo is the first Augustinian pope.
Leo gave Vance a coffee-table sized image e book concerning the papal residences within the Apostolic Palace and a bronze sculpture bearing a message in Italian, La tempo è un fiore fragile, “Peace is a fragile flower.”
The Vatican has lengthy supplied to attempt to assist facilitate talks between Ukraine and Russia, however had turn into largely sidelined within the negotiations round Ukraine-Russia battle, with feedback by Pope Francis upsetting each side at completely different factors within the battle.
The Vatican has continued to hunt to assist facilitate the return of Ukrainian youngsters taken by Russia and the Holy See has been in a position to mediate some prisoner exchanges.
On Saturday, Rubio mentioned the Vatican could possibly be a very good venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks. Requested if the Vatican could possibly be a peace dealer, Rubio replied: “I would not name it dealer, nevertheless it’s definitely — I feel it is a spot that each side can be snug going.”
He then met with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Vatican level man on Ukraine, to additional talk about methods, Rubio mentioned, that the Vatican may assist “the trail ahead” in Ukraine.
