Vice President Vance will lead the U.S. delegation to the inauguration mass of Pope Leo in Vatican City on Sunday.
The vice president will be joined by second lady Usha Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife, Jeanette Rubio, for the first American pope’s inauguration.
Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 and met with the late Pope Francis last month just before he died. He is the second Catholic vice president in U.S. history, following former President Biden, who later became the second Catholic president in U.S. history.
Pope Leo, who was born in Dolton, Ill., was elected by cardinals last week in a historic moment for the church. He is an Augustinian friar who attended Villanova University and spent much of his adult life working in Peru, where he has a dual citizenship. Francis made him a Cardinal in 2023.
President Trump is not expected to attend the mass. Then-Vice President Biden led the U.S. delegation to Francis’s inaugural mass in 2013 and then-President Obama didn’t attend.
Trump attended Francis’s funeral in Rome last month and he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inside of St. Peter’s Basilica before the funeral began.
