ROME: Pope Leo XIV and US Vice President JD Vance met at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of US-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the US delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope. Joining him at the meeting on Monday was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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,\u201d according to a Vatican statement after their meeting.<\/p>\n
The Vatican listed Vance\u2019s delegation as the first of several private audiences Leo was having Monday with people who had come to Rome for his inaugural Mass, including other Christian leaders and a group of faithful from his old diocese in Chiclayo, Peru.<\/p>\n
The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, has offered to host any peace talks while continuing humanitarian efforts to facilitate prisoner swaps and reunite Ukrainian children taken by Russia.<\/p>\n
After greeting Leo briefly at the end of Sunday\u2019s Mass, Vance spent the rest of the day in separate meetings, including with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He also met with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy\u2019s Premier Giorgia Meloni, who said she hoped the trialateral meeting could be a \u201cnew beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the evening, Meloni spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump and several other European leaders ahead of Trump\u2019s expected call with Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to a statement from Meloni\u2019s office.
\n\u2018Every Effort\u2019<\/p>\n
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, is a Chicago-born Augustinian missionary who spent the bulk of his ministry in Chiclayo, a commercial city of around 800,000 on Peru\u2019s northern Pacific coast.<\/p>\n
In the days since his May 8 election, Leo has vowed \u201cevery effort\u201d to help bring peace to Ukraine. He also has emphasized his continuity with Pope Francis, who made caring for migrants and the poor a priority of his pontificate.<\/p>\n
Before his election, Prevost shared news articles on X that were critical of the Trump administration\u2019s plans for mass deportations of migrants.<\/p>\n
Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the Argentine pope\u2019s April 21 death. The two had tangled over migration, with Francis publicly rebuking the Trump administration\u2019s deportation plan and correcting Vance\u2019s theological justification for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROME: Pope Leo XIV and US Vice President JD Vance met at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of US-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine. Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the US delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-479468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n