WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
Two prominent Catholics, Pope Leo XIV and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, met Monday ahead of a series of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
Vance’s motorcade was seen entering the Vatican shortly after 7:30 a.m., the AP reported.
Vance led the U.S. delegation at a solemn mass that inaugurated the pontificate of the first American pope.
Vance was joined at the Vatican by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also a Catholic, said Vance spokesman Luke Schroeder.
The Vatican listed Vance’s delegation as the first of several private audiences Pope Leo XIV had 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 of Chiclayo, Peru.
The Vatican, which largely remained on the sidelines during the first three years of the war in Ukraine, has offered to host peace talks while continuing humanitarian efforts to facilitate a prisoner exchange and the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
After briefly greeting Pope Leo at the end of Sunday's mass, Vance spent the rest of the day in separate meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Later on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump planned separate phone calls with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky, as well as calls with NATO leaders.
