Vice President JD Vance is headed back to Rome this weekend to attend Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass, according to a Bloomberg report.
This will be Vance’s second trip to the Vatican in two months. Last month, he visited Pope Francis on Easter weekend before the pontiff died on Easter Monday. Conspiracy theorists and jokesters alike swelled the digital world with the idea that Vance’s meeting killed the pope. However, Francis was hospitalized before his death.
Vance is the highest-ranking catholic in the U.S. Government, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Both men are expected to attend the event with their wives. The vice president converted to Catholicism in 2019.
The mass is to be held in St. Peter’s Square, where Leo, the first pope born in the U.S., will be formally given his position.
According to Bloomberg, “It’s unclear whether Vance and Rubio will meet face-to-face with the new pope.” However, if they do meet, there could be some fireworks as Pope Leo has been a loud critic of Trump and Vance.
Earlier this year, then-Cardinal Prevost railed against Vance’s interpretation of Catholic doctrine on X. “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” he wrote.
While he was alive, Pope Francis also criticized the president and vice president, to which Vance claimed he is just a “baby catholic” with "a lot to learn."
Both Vance and President Trump congratulated Pope Leo on being the first American Pope.
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Leo was born and raised in Chicago and is a White Sox fan. The 69-year-old is also a citizen of Peru, where he served the poor before being appointed cardinal.
Bloomberg reports, “The former Cardinal Prevost’s choice of papal name intentionally recalls the tenure of Leo XIII, who called attention to the plight of the working class during the industrial revolution of the late 1800s.”
Several other world leaders are expected to attend the mass, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australia’s Anthony Albanese.