Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the American delegation at the pontifical mass of León XIV, the first American Pope. Donald Trump, who attended the funeral of Pope Francis, has decided to delegate this time to his two top representatives, both Catholics.
The mass in St. Peter's Square, at ten in the morning, will once again be attended by dozens of world leaders, such as King Felipe and Queen Letizia, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. President Zelenski could take the opportunity for a personal meeting with the Pope, who at one point condemned "the imperialist aggression of Russia".
The presence of JD Vance, who was received by Pope Francis a day before his death, had been speculated for over a week, but his attendance was not officially confirmed until Thursday. Criticisms from then-Cardinal Robert Prevost regarding the Trump Administration's immigration policy and its definition of love for one's neighbor - "Vance is wrong," Prevost wrote on social media - have been downplayed by the American Vice President himself.
The official photo of León XIV: With his signature in Latin and the reliquary cross
"I don't want to get into the game of politicizing the Pope's work", Vance declared on May 9 in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt. "I'm sure he will say things I love and others I disagree with, but I will continue to pray for him and for the Church, and that's how I will handle this matter.
"The Church seeks to save souls and spread the Gospel," added the American Vice President, a convert to Catholicism. "It is obvious that it will also address issues related to human institutions, but that is not its purpose. I believe it would be healthier for the media and American Catholics not to take that attitude of politicization in the age of social media towards the Papacy."
"I do not see the Papacy as a political position but as a spiritual one", stated Marco Rubio. "The Church has a strong social doctrine, but it is not incompatible."
"We are also compassionate towards immigrants," Rubio clarified, referring to the criticisms of then-Cardinal Prevost. "But there is nothing compassionate about opening borders and allowing human traffickers and criminals who abuse our communities to enter the country."
In 2013, when Pope Francis celebrated his first pontifical mass, the American delegation was led by then-Vice President Joe Biden, also a Catholic.
The Pope took the opportunity during the reception with the diplomatic corps on Friday to make a repeated call for peace and disarmament and a defense of immigrants, after defining himself as "a citizen descended from immigrants who has also emigrated." "Let us build a world in which each person can realize their humanity in truth, justice, and peace," said the pontiff to the ambassadors in the Vatican.
León XIV also condemned "the destructive will of conquest" and urged "a sincere will for dialogue," in a veiled reference to the war in Ukraine. "Peace is not only the absence of war or conflict," emphasized the Pope. "In the Christian perspective, peace is a gift, the first gift of Christ."
"Peace is built with the heart and from the heart, removing pride and claims", added the Pope. "And also measuring language, because one can kill with words, not only with weapons."
The Pope also urged the ambassadors in the Vatican to "invest in the family" and defined it as "the union between a man and a woman," in one of his first references to same-sex unions. "It is the task of those in government to strive to build harmonious and peaceful societies," he concluded.