Vance Will Return to Vatican for Inaugural Mass

Vice President JD Vance is going to meet his second pope in the space of a month. The White House announced Thursday that Vance will lead the US delegation to Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass in Vatican City on Sunday, NBC News reports. Vance will be joined by his wife, Usha Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Rubio's wife, Jeanette Rubio, reports the Hill. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, is the second Catholic—and the first convert—to serve as vice president. Joe Biden was the first Catholic vice president and the second Catholic president, with John F. Kennedy the first.

Vance briefly met Leo's predecessor, Pope Francis, at the Vatican less than 24 hours before Francis' death last month. Francis had criticized Vance in the past. Leo, the first American pope, has shared articles in the past criticizing Trump administration figures, including one with the title "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others." Vance told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last week that he tries "not to play the politicization of the Pope game," Politico reports. "I'm sure he's going to say a lot of things that I love," Vance said. "I'm sure he'll say some things that I disagree with, but I'll continue to pray for him and the Church despite it all and through it all." (More Pope Leo XIV stories.)