Vice President J.D. Vance passed along a letter from President Trump and first lady Melania Trump to Pope Leo XIV inviting him to the White House.
Mr. Vance traveled this weekend to Rome to attend the new pontiff’s inaugural Sunday Mass.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the press briefing Monday that the letter extended “warm wishes” and invited them “as soon as they possibly could come.”
Ms. Leavitt said the meeting was good [and] productive.”
The vice president met briefly with Pope Leo at the Vatican on Monday before Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the visit, followed by their spouses and the larger delegation from the United States.
Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, put the letter on his desk. He was heard saying “at some point,” in video footage provided by Vatican Media.
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Mr. Vance also gifted the pope a Chicago Bears T-shirt with Leo’s name on it and a copy of works by St. Augustine. The pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, was born in Chicago and is an Augustinian missionary.
The pope gave the vice president a bronze sculpture with “Peace is a fragile flower” written in Italian and a picture book of the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.
During the meeting, there “was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” a statement from the Vatican said after the meeting.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
