White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Vance passed a long a letter to the pope from President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump “extending their warm wishes and inviting him to the White House as soon as he possibly can” visit.

Vance, a Catholic convert, had led the U.S. delegation to the formal Mass opening the pontificate of the first American pope.

Pope Leo XIV affirmed Friday that the family is founded on the “stable union between a man and a woman,” and that the unborn and elderly enjoy dignity as God’s creatures, articulating clear Catholic ...