Pope and JD Vance meet ahead of diplomatic push for Ukraine ceasefire

South Wales Guardian

19-05-2025

Mr 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 was US secretary of state Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said.
For many nations, the image of a mother and child is a symbol of life that must be protected. Today, we presented Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex with a special icon – the Holy Mother with the Infant, painted on a fragment of a crate used to store heavy artillery munitions, brought from… pic.twitter.com/FVYceRqzvy
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 18, 2025
According to a Vatican statement after their meeting: 'There 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.'
The Vatican listed Mr Vance's delegation as the first of several private audiences Leo was having on 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.
The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia's 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.
After greeting Leo briefly at the end of Sunday's Mass, Mr 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's Premier Giorgia Meloni, who said she hoped the tri-lateral meeting could be a 'new beginning'.
In the evening, Ms Meloni spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump and several other European leaders ahead of Mr Trump's expected call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Monday, according to a statement from Meloni's office.
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's northern Pacific coast.
This is the hour for love! The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters. With my predecessor Leo XIII, we can ask ourselves today: If this criterion 'were to prevail in the world, would not every conflict cease and peace return?' (Rerum Novarum)
— Pope Leo XIV (@Pontifex) May 18, 2025
In the days since his May 8 election, Leo has vowed 'every effort' to help bring peace to Ukraine.
He also has emphasised his continuity with Pope Francis, who made caring for migrants and the poor a priority of his pontificate.
Before his election, then-cardinal Prevost shared news articles on X that were critical of the Trump administration's plans for mass deportations of migrants.
Mr Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the Argentine pope's death on April 21.
The two had tangled over migration, with Francis publicly rebuking the Trump administration's deportation plan and correcting Mr Vance's theological justification for it.