JD Vance to travel to the Vatican for Pope Leo XIV's inauguration after online feud
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass in Vatican City on Sunday, the White House announced Thursday.
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to attend Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass in Vatican City this Sunday, as confirmed by the White House on Thursday.
Vance, a Catholic himself, had a brief encounter with the late Pope Francis before his passing last month. This meeting sparked some online users to mock Vance, with some even absurdly blaming him for Francis' death.
Howeover, the internet is anticipating potential friction at the mass between the new pope and Vance, following Leo XIV's sharing of an article on social media that took aim at Vance's views on Christianity.
On January 29, Vance remarked: "There is a Christian concept that you love your family, and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then, after that, prioritise the rest of the world." He also mentioned his belief that "a lot of the far left has completely inverted that."
The piece shared by Pope Leo XIV was headlined "JD Vance is Wrong: Jesus Doesn't Ask Us to Rank Our Love for Others," challenging Vance's statement by suggesting that scripture calls for equal love towards all.
Pope Leo didn't limit his critique to Vance; he also amplified articles that took issue with the Trump administration's immigration policies.
Back in April, the then Cardinal Leo shared an article penned by a Catholic writer that questioned Trump, asking if he "saw the suffering" his policies had inflicted. Echoing Pope Francis, his predecessor, Leo has expressed similar views on the U.S.'s approach to immigration through his social media activity.
Despite this, Vance, who embraced Catholicism in 2019, extended his congratulations to Leo upon his election. "I'm sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church," the vice president posted on X, adding, "May God bless him!".
When quizzed about his thoughts on Leo's rise to power during an interview with conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt last week, Vance acknowledged their potential political differences but also downplayed them.
"You know, people are asking, 'Is he a conservative or is he a liberal? Will he attack President Trump and JD Vance on certain things?' ... And I guess my response to this is, it's very hard to fit a 2,000 year old institution into the politics of 2025 America," Vance shared with Hewitt.
In the days leading up to the conclave, the White House stirred up controversy when Trump uploaded a computer-generated image of himself as pope. The move sparked backlash from some Catholics, who deemed the image distasteful.