WASHINGTON—Vice President JD Vance will spend Holy Week in Vatican City before heading to India, the vice president’s office shared with The Daily Wire.
Vance will attend Good Friday Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, his office shared with The Daily Wire. While in Rome, Vance is also slated to meet with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who visited the White House on Thursday.
“Vice President Vance looks forward to meeting with Prime Minister Meloni and Church officials while in Italy and is grateful for the opportunity to visit some of Rome’s amazing cultural and religious sites with his family during Holy Week,” the vice president’s press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, told The Daily Wire.
Pope Francis, who was recently released from the hospital following a prolonged health scare, announced that he will not preside over the Vatican’s Holy Week masses. The Pope tapped Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, to lead Good Friday mass in his stead.
Vance, a Catholic convert, caught flack from Pope Francis earlier this year for the Trump administration’s stance on immigration. Vance acknowledged that scuffle at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in February, calling himself a “Baby Catholic” and noting that “sometimes, the bishops get mad at me.”
“If you ever hear me pontificating about the Catholic faith, please recognize it comes from a place of deep belief, but it also comes from a place of not always knowing everything all the time,” he said at the time.
Vance’s visit comes a week of Easter festivities at the White House, including prayer services and dinners with religious leaders. Trump released a “Presidential Message on Holy Week” on Palm Sunday, in which he reaffirmed his administration’s “promise to defend the Christian faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government.”
“We will never waver in safeguarding the right to religious liberty, upholding the dignity of life, and protecting God in our public square,” Trump wrote.
Last year, President Joe Biden and his administration came under fire when Biden declared Easter Sunday “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
The U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Italy also noted in a release that Vance and his family will be traveling between April 18 and April 24, stating that Vance will “discuss shared economic and geopolitical priorities with leaders in each country.”
While in India, Vance will visit New Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra, hold meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and participate in “engagements at cultural sites.”
