Vice President JD Vance heads to Vatican City to meet new pope

Vice President J.D. Vance will travel to Italy to meet the new pope, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church.

Vance will lead a U.S. Delegation to Vatican City to attend the inaugural Mass of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on Sunday.

Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance will be joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mrs. Jeanette Rubio. Pope Leo XIV, of Chicago, is the first American pope in the church's 2,000 year history. Vance is the first Catholic convert to serve as vice president.

About 53 million Catholic adults live in the U.S., about 19% of the U.S. population. Catholics are the second-largest faith group in the U.S. Protestants make up about 40% of the U.S. population, including Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Pentecostals, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center report.

Vance met with Pope Francis shortly before the pope died on April 21. Pope Francis had served as pope since 2013, and his official cause of death was a cerebral stroke that led to a coma, though he had ongoing health issues for months. The pope's health had been waning over several years, and in the months before he passed, he was hospitalized for double pneumonia.