Vance greets Pope Leo XIV in Vatican City

Vice President Vance and second lady Usha Vance met Pope Leo XIV while in Vatican City for the pontiff’s inauguration mass on Sunday.

Before exiting St. Peter’s Square, the vice president and second lady greeted Leo, a spokesperson for the vice president said.

Vice President Vance and the first American pope shook hands and appeared to talk for several seconds. The second lady stood with Vance, wearing a black lace veil.

Vance led the U.S. delegation to the inauguration mass, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife, Jeanette Rubio. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 and met with Pope Francis last month just before he died. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also attended the mass and greeted the pope after. The pope recently offered to host leaders from Russia and Ukraine at the Vatican to broker a peace deal in their ongoing war.

Vance’s greeting with the pope is also notable because Leo has shared criticism of the vice president’s stance on immigration in the past.

In February, he shared an opinion article that criticized Vance on the social platform X with the headline, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” He also shared an article with the headline “Pope Francis’ letter, JD Vance’s ‘ordo amoris’ and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration.”

Vance has received criticism from other Catholics over his stance on migrants and his comments that Christians love their families, neighbors and fellow citizens before the rest of the world.