Both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend the inaugural Mass of Pope Leo XIV on May 18, the vice president’s office said.
Pope Leo is the first U.S.-born pope.
The two officials, both Catholic, will be joined by their respective spouses, second lady Usha Vance and Jeanette Rubio, in the U.S. delegation to the Mass for the inauguration of the pope’s Petrine ministry in St. Peter’s Square.
Vance — the second Catholic to hold the vice presidency, preceded only by former President Joe Biden — was in Vatican City in April, where he met with Pope Francis on Easter, the final full day of the late pope’s life.
In February, Pope Francis released a letter to the U.S. bishops, Catholics and all people of goodwill, responding to “the major crisis that is taking place in the United States” created by President Donald Trump’s plans to target the country’s immigrants who lack legal authorization to live and work in the U.S. for mass deportation. Among those targeted are more than 10 million Christians, a majority of whom are Catholic.
In that letter, Pope Francis appeared to rebuke the vice president’s invocation of the Catholic theological concept of the “ordo amoris” (the order of love or charity) to justify Trump’s immigration policy actions. The future Pope Leo, then Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, appeared to concur with the pope in a February post on X, when he shared an opinion piece from the National Catholic Reporter titled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
Vance recently acknowledged the potential for both conflict and common ground with Pope Leo, noting the Catholic Church is “about the saving of souls” and its teachings do not fit neatly with 2025 American politics.
“There are a lot of views the Catholic leadership holds that are, you know, you might consider on the right side of the spectrum. There are a lot of views they’re going to hold that might be more traditionally on the left side of the spectrum. And then there are a lot of views that don’t map easily onto politics at all,” he said in an interview May 9 with conservative talk host Hugh Hewitt.
“I’m sure he’s going to say a lot of things that I love. 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, and that’ll be the way that I handle it,” Vance said.
Trump, who attended Pope Francis’ funeral April 26 and caused some controversy in May with an AI-generated image of himself as pope posted to the White House’s X account, called the first American pope “a great honor for our country.” The president told Fox News host Sean Hannity recently that Pope Leo was a “surprise choice” and he would like to speak with the pope about immigration.
“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”… pic.twitter.com/q6kNcSOqAT
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 8, 2025
Trump, who has previously mused about the idea of seeking a third term despite Constitutional term limits, recently said he would not do so, setting the stage for both Vance and Rubio to be increasingly seen as potential contenders for the GOP nomination in 2028. Both Catholic leaders are friends, and Vance has downplayed discussion of any rivalry between them in recent comments.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. OSV News national news editor Peter Jesserer Smith contributed to this report.
