Vice President JD Vance will be in Rome this weekend for the inaugural Mass of Pope Leo XIV.
Vance, who met with the late Pope Francis on Easter Sunday just hours before Francis’s death, will make another trip to the Vatican to greet Francis’s successor.
A Catholic convert, Vance will lead a U.S. delegation to Vatican City for Leo’s inaugural Mass, which will be held May 18. Second lady Usha Vance is also scheduled to attend, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife, Jeanette Rubio.
Leo’s inaugural Mass holds special significance in the United States because he is the first American pope in history. Meanwhile, according to his office, Vance is the first Catholic convert to serve as vice president.
However, Vance has sparred with Catholic leadership, particularly over immigration. He previously suggested the Catholic Church was “worried about its bottom line” after it criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
While he’s just beginning his papacy, Leo has a history of sharing content on social media critical of Trump and Vance. Earlier this year, before he was chosen as pope, Leo shared a story from the National Catholic Reporter headlined, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” The article criticized Vance over his immigration stance.
Vance has commented on the concept of the ordo amoris, meaning “order of love,” saying people are called to love their family first, followed by their neighbors, community, country, and, finally, the rest of the world. He said the “far left” has inverted that concept.
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In April, Leo shared a post from another Catholic writer criticizing Trump’s meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has assisted the Trump administration in its efforts to deport illegal immigrants. The post said, “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”
Trump, who called Leo a “surprising choice” for the position, said he would like to discuss immigration with the pope. After Leo’s selection, Trump wrote on Truth Social that meeting him would be a “very meaningful moment.”