JD Vance Plans Return to Vatican for Pope Leo’s Inaugural Mass
JD Vance at Good Friday mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on April 18.
Photographer: Kenny Holston/Getty ImagesVice President JD Vance will attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV following the pontiff’s historic election as the first American leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the US government, heads to Italy and the Vatican for the second time in as many months after attending Holy Week services in Rome. In that April trip, Vance met briefly with the late Pope Francis just a day before the pontiff died.