The meeting appeared part of an effort to reset relations with the Vatican after Pope Francis repeatedly criticized President Trump's migration policy. Vance also gave Pope Leo a Chicago Bears jersey.
Pope Leo XIV has made peace with Jannik Sinner. The top-ranked tennis player visited the new pope, gave him a tennis racket and offered to play, during an off day for Sinner at the Italian Open.
McBride, a Georgia native, has seen how Hollywood traffics in stereotypes about the American South. His HBO show satirizes televangelists without making religious people the butt of the joke.
The church said it's terminating a decades-long partnership with the federal government to help refugees arriving in the U.S., citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa.
At services on Sunday, some Catholics took particular pride in the election of the first American pontiff, who has familial ties to multiple places across the country.
Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the war in Ukraine on Sunday, in his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff since his election.
For close watchers of the Catholic Church, the election of a U.S. pope seemed impossible. The "Trump effect" on the U.S. and global order changed that, papal expert Massimo Faggioli told NPR.
As Cardinal Robert Prevost's name was announced, a sound of shock rose up. It was something few people had anticipated — the new pope is from the United States.
