Pope meets Vance ahead of Ukraine ceasefire push
The Hindu
Pope Leo XIV meets with U.S. officials to discuss ending Russia-Ukraine conflict, Vatican confirms.
Pope Leo XIV received U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican on Monday (May 19, 2025), ahead of a U.S.-led push to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Vatican released photographs of Mr. Vance and Mr. Rubio smiling as they met with the Chicago-born pontiff, who was elected as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on May 8 — the first pope from the United States.
The pair were among the 200,000 dignitaries, royals and faithful who had gathered on Sunday (May 18, 2025) to mark the official start of Pope Leo’s papacy at an inauguration mass in St. Peter’s Square.
Pope Leo, 69, has made peace the key word of his papacy so far and was expected to talk to Mr. Vance and Mr. Rubio about the U.S. administration’s role in pushing for an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict in particular.
Mr. Vance handed Pope Leo an invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump to visit the White House, his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters in Washington, adding that Mr. Trump hoped the visit would happen as soon as possible.
Mr. Trump will hold a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin later on Monday (May 19, 2025) as part of his efforts to end the war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Vance also met on Monday (May 19, 2025) with the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher, for “cordial talks” during which they expressed “satisfaction at the good bilateral relations”, the Vatican said.
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