JD Vance gives Pope Leo XIV an invitation from Trump to visit us

Rome (AP) – Us Vice President JD Vance has an invitation too Pope Leo XIV To visit the United States during a meeting in the Vatican on Monday in front of a flood of diplomatic efforts by the United States to make progress in an armistice in the Russian war Ukraine.

Vance gave the first American Pope a letter from US President Donald Trump and the first lady who invited him. The Pope born in Chicago took the letter and put it on his desk and was “at some point” in the video recordings of the meeting provided by the Vatican media entitled “At some point”.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism In 2019, the Augustinian Pope also gave a copy of two most pioneering works by St. Augustine, “The City of God” and “On Christian Doctrine”, said the Vice President's office. Another gift: a chicago ends T-shirt with Leo's name.

“As you can probably imagine, people in the USA are very excited about them,” said Vance to Leo when they exchanged gifts.

Leo gave Vance a bronze sculpture with the words in Italian “peace is a fragile flower” and a picture book of the papal apartments in the apostolic palace. Leo noticed that Francis had decided not to live in them and added: “And I could live in it, but it wasn't quite decided.”

Vance led the US delegation to the formal trade fair on Sunday Open the pontificate of the first American Pope. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, also a Catholic spokesman Luke Schroeder, was at the meeting on Monday. The two then met with the Vatican Foreign Minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

“There was an exchange of views on some current international questions that demanded respect for humanitarian law and international law in conflict areas and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” said the Vatican after their meeting.

The Vatican listed the delegation of Vances when the first of several private audiences that Leo had on Monday with people who came to Rome because of his first mass Chiclayo, Peru.

The Vatican, which was largely equipped in the first three years of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia to Ukraine offered to organize peace talks While humanitarian efforts to facilitate prisoner change and the reunification of the Ukrainian children recorded by Russia.

After greeting Vance Leo briefly at the end of the fair on Sunday, he spent the rest of the day in separate meetings, including with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He also met with the President of the European Union, President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy's leading Giorgia Meloni, who said she hoped The test manager Could be a “new beginning”.

In the evening, Meloni spoke to US President Donald Trump and several other European leaders in front of Trumps expected call According to an explanation from Meloni's office on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

“All efforts”

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, is a Augustinian missionary born in Chicago, who spent most of his Ministry in Chiclayo, a commercial city with around 800,000 on the coast of North Pacific in Peru.

In the days since his election on May 8th, Leo vowed “All efforts” To bring the Ukraine peace. He also emphasized his continuity with Pope Francis, who made himself a priority of his pontificate for migrants and the poor.

Before his choice, Prevost shared News articles on X that criticized the plans of the Trump government Mass shifts from migrants.

Vance was one of the Last foreign civil servants meet with Francis beforehand The death of the Argentine Pope on April 21. The two had dealt with Francis about migration publicly The deportation plan of the Trump government and the correction of vances theological justification for this.

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