Vice President JD Vance finally got a sit-down with Pope Leo XIV a day after the pontiff met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky instead.
Vance was in Rome on Sunday for Leo’s inaugural Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Although Leo offered the vice president a quick greeting afterward and shook the vice president’s hand, he only held private meetings with Zelensky and Peruvian President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Sunday on whether Vance had sought a longer meeting with the new pope after their initial exchange lasted about 17 seconds.
But on Monday, Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Leo for “cordial talks” about bilateral relations, religious freedom, and international affairs, the Vatican’s press office said in a statement.
The statement said there had been an “exchange of views on some current international issues,” which the Catholic News Agency took to be a reference to disagreements.
“I was humbled and honored to meet Pope Leo XIV and lead the presidential delegation to Rome for his inaugural mass,” Vance said of the meeting Monday on X. “We had a great conversation, and I know he is a true servant of God. I hope all Americans will join me in praying for the new pope as he begins his ministry.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Vance’s team for comment.
According to the news outlet, the 45-minute audience—which was closed to reporters—began with a one-on-one between Vance and Leo, with Rubio joining afterward. Vance’s wife Usha, Rubio’s wife, Jeanette, and a larger U.S. delegation then joined for the customary exchange of gifts.
Photos posted on Instagram by the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano show they brought the first North American pontiff—who grew up in Chicago—a Chicago Bears jersey emblazoned with “Pope Leo XIV” and a copy of a tome by St. Augustine, The Washington Post reported.
Leo is a member of the Augustinian religious order, while Vance has written that St. Augustine inspired him to convert to Catholicism in 2019.
After receiving Vance, Rubio and their wives Monday, Leo met with the president of Colombia, the prime minister of Australia, the president of Georgia, and various religious leaders from around the world, according to the Vatican.
Since being chosen as Pope Francis’ successor on May 8, Leo has taken a number of stances that contrast with President Donald Trump’s administration policies, including calling for governments to build bridges and respect migrants, protect the environment and care for the poor.
Before he became pope, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost shared multiple social media posts criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
One linked to a National Catholic Reporter op-ed headlined “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” while another took aim at the administration for deporting Venezuelan and Salvadoran migrants to a mega prison in El Salvador.
American officials have tried to paint the administration as aligned with Leo’s stated goals of using the papacy as a force for peace and help ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, according to the Post.
But unlike Trump and his officials—who have repeated Kremlin talking points and even berated Zelensky in the Oval Office—Leo appears to be firmly on the side of Ukraine.
On Sunday, his secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin said Leo had offered to use the Vatican for peace talks after Russian President Vladimir Putin blew off a planned summit in Istanbul, La Stampa reported. Vance also posted a smiling picture with Zelensky from a meeting Sunday.
According to the Post, it will also be difficult for Trump and Vance to portray themselves as peacemakers as the administration authorizes billions of dollars in weapons sales to Israel, which has voted to capture all of Gaza and occupy the territory indefinitely.
Last week, NBC News reported that the U.S. was working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya. The State Department denied the report, but Trump himself has said he wants to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
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