Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Leo XIV on Monday and gave the Chicago-born pontiff a Bears football jersey inscribed with his title.
Vance, a Catholic convert, brought along the present on his visit with the first American pope, who said, “Good choice,” as he accepted it:
Video obtained by CBS News also shows the vice president handing Pope Leo XIV a letter from President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, inviting the new Catholic leader to the White House.
“I know you have many things to do, but I wanted to make sure I gave you that letter,” Vance said.
The Monday meeting, which Second Lady Usha Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended, lasted approximately 40 minutes, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“You can probably imagine that people in the United States are extremely excited about you,” the vice president said.
The pope’s gift to the Vances was a bronze sculpture engraved with the phrase, “Peace is a fragile flower,” in Italian.
The meeting ended with the vice president saying he would pray for Pope Leo XIV, who replied, “I am sure we will meet again.”
The vice president’s first time meeting the new pontiff was on Sunday, when he greeted him at his inaugural mass in Vatican City, accompanied by Usha, Rubio, and his wife, Jeanette Rubio.
A Vatican statement obtained by CBS reported that the meeting included “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.”
The vice president’s office told the outlet that he also gave the pope two books by St. Augustine — Vance’s chosen patron saint — The City of God and On Christian Doctrine.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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