Vice President JD Vance is heading to Rome again—this time for the official installation of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope in history.
According to Bloomberg, Vance will attend the inaugural mass at St. Peter’s Square, where Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, will formally take on his new role. The event is expected to draw leaders from around the world, including Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
This is Vance’s second visit to the Vatican in just two months. He met with Pope Francis over Easter weekend, just days before the pontiff died on Easter Monday. Online conspiracy theories quickly exploded, joking that Vance’s visit somehow led to the pope’s death.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, is the highest-ranking Catholic in the U.S. government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also Catholic, is expected to join him in Rome. Both men will be accompanied by their wives.
Whether Vance and Rubio will meet privately with the new pope is still up in the air. But if they do, it might get tense.
Before becoming pope, then-Cardinal Prevost didn’t hold back on Vance. In January, he blasted the vice president on social media, saying, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.” Pope Francis had also previously criticized both Trump and Vance, prompting Vance to downplay the feud, saying he’s just a “baby Catholic” with “a lot to learn.”
Despite the criticism, Vance and President Trump both publicly congratulated Leo on becoming the first American to lead the Catholic Church.
Born in Chicago and a lifelong White Sox fan, Leo XIV is also a citizen of Peru. He spent years serving poor communities there before becoming a cardinal.
His choice of the name “Leo” is no accident. Bloomberg reports that it’s a nod to Pope Leo XIII, who famously championed workers’ rights during the industrial revolution.
Leo XIV’s rise marks a historic moment—and JD Vance will be front and center.
