ROME – Two high-profile Catholics, Pope Leo XIV and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, met Monday ahead of a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Vance’s motorcade was seen entering Vatican City just after 7:30 a.m. Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the U.S. delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope.

Joining Vance at the Vatican was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder said.

The Vatican listed Vance’s 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.

The Vatican, which was largely sidelined during the first three years of Russia’s war, 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, Vance spent the rest of the day in separate meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

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.

In the days since his May 8 election, Leo has vowed “every effort” 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.

Before his election, Prevost shared news articles on X that were critical of the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants.

Vance was one of the last foreign officials to meet with Francis before the Argentine pope’s April 21 death. The two had tangled over migration, with Francis publicly rebuking the Trump administration’s deportation plan and correcting Vance’s theological justification for it.

Later Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump has planned separate phone calls with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr, as well as calls to NATO leaders.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.