JD Vance returns to the Vatican, a potential reset for the American right

Rome: The announcement that Vice President JD Vance would attend Pope Leo XIV's inauguration Mass included a simple line.

"Pope Leo XIV is the first American Pope. Vice President Vance is the first Catholic convert to serve as Vice President," the White House notice said.

It was neutral, yet telling. The first American pope holds the seat of St Peter at a time when conservative Catholicism has political strength in the United States, embodied in the man first in line to the presidency. The relationship between the two will be one of the most-watched developments of Pope Leo's papacy.

The cardinals' selection of Pope Leo tests the strained relationship between the bishop of Rome and the American right-wing. Just four Sundays ago, Vance shook hands with a pope who had publicly chastised his theology and position on immigration, and who faced long-standing frustration from traditionalist Catholics. This Sunday, he arrives to greet a leader who appears to share many of his predecessor's views, including direct criticism of Vance in a now-deleted social media account associated with his name.

Leading conservative American Catholics often say they do not know Pope Leo personally. Yet while some had different first choices for the papacy, Pope Leo has begun by positioning himself as a conciliatory, moderate force. Some conservatives are finding points of commonality in his theology and administrative pragmatism, and even cautious anticipation that their relationship with Rome may reset.

"He seems to be a man of deep prayer and reflection who believes in service to others and fidelity to the church's doctrine and constant teaching," said Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association. "I am optimistic that he can bring unity to the church through clear and compassionate leadership of the faithful."

Some activists note that they love the symbolism of Pope Leo's coat of arms, with its message of unity and communion in the church. He also invited the leader of Opus Dei, a Catholic group with strong conservative support, for a brief meeting, "in which the pope expressed his closeness and affection," the group said in a statement.

Pope Leo's focus on the dignity of the worker in the modern world, and indications that he will focus on labor and society, may be points of particular connection.

Pope Leo and Vance share a hero in St. Augustine, if they at times may interpret him in diverging ways. The day Vance converted to Catholicism through study with Dominican friars, he chose Augustine as his patron, having found inspiration in his fifth-century treatise, "City of God," that challenged Rome's ruling class. "Our society is more than the sum of its economic statistics," Vance later said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is joining Vance at the Vatican, has previously pointed to Pope Leo XIII's landmark 19th-century treatise Rerum Novarum, which addressed the needs and dignity of workers, as a basis for his own views about economic reform.

When Pope Leo met with ambassadors Friday, he called on governments to "build harmonious and peaceful civil societies," and then cited a line from that 19th-century text that sounds similar to some of the economic populism of the Catholic right.

"This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, 'a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society,'" he said. But he immediately followed it with the reminder to respect the dignity of the unemployed, "citizens and immigrants alike."

His attention to the dignity of the worker appeals across political divides.

"The fact that he is focused on tech and AI, issues of the day, says a lot," said John Cannon, the founder of SENT, a network for Catholic business leaders, who was in Rome for America Week events before the conclave.

For some traditionalists, Pope Leo is unique because he is a strong administrator and a missionary. "The fact that you have both in one person is very rare," Cannon said.

Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., introduced a resolution in Congress to honor Pope Leo, saying he exemplified "humility and courage." (Before Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost became pope, his social media account shared criticisms of the Trump administration's positions on immigration. Last month, Moore posted on social media a photo of himself with two thumbs up while standing in front of a crowded cell of inmates in El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison, where the Trump administration had sent deportees.)

A bipartisan group asked House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to invite Pope Leo to address Congress. "An address by his Holiness would serve as a powerful reminder of our shared commitments to peace, service to others and moral leadership," it wrote.

Some conservatives who were openly opposed to Pope Leo's election have softened their approach. Days before the white smoke, Catholic Vote's media arm suggested that liberal and conservative news media had coordinated a campaign to push for Cardinal Prevost.

"I'm certainly not a fan of this guy," Josh Mercer, who founded Catholic Vote with Brian Burch, President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to the Holy See, said in a podcast. "Obviously, the reason why he is being pushed is because he seems to be a little bit more of a palatable liberal that could carry on what Francis is doing."

But several days after the election, Mercer noted in an opinion essay with Steve Cortes, a former Trump adviser, that it seemed that Pope Leo subscribed to "tenets of the economic agenda of patriotic populism."