Pope declines invite to America’s 250th despite Vance's 'in-person' invite

Pope declines invite to America’s 250th despite Vance's 'in-person' invite

Pope Leo XIV has officially dissed Catholic JD Vance’s formal invitation to the upcoming July 4th 250th festivities in the United States. Instead, the Pope, formerly of Chicago, will be celebrating that day “on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa — a migrant gateway in the Mediterranean,” reports Christopher Hale, who chronicles the Vatican’s doings with his “Letters from Leo” reports.“… [B]ack in May 2025, JD Vance personally invited Pope Leo …

Pope skips America’s 250th anniversary despite Vance’s ‘in-person’ invitation

Pope Leo XIV rejects the invitation to America's 250th Independence Day celebration, opting instead to spend the 4th of July among hapless asylum-seekers in Lampedusa Island.

The Holy Father skips America’s 250th anniversary despite invitation

Pope Leo XIV has rejected a formal invitation to attend the United States’ 250th Independence Day celebration, opting instead to go to an immigrant reception center on a tiny, remote island. The Vatican officially announced on Thursday that Pope Leo will be in Lampedusa, a small Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea that serves as a gateway for asylum-seekers heading from West Asia and North Africa to Europe in an effort to flee from poverty, …