Pope Leo XIV
Posted by Jim on February 23, 2026
JD Vance humiliated as Pope snubs Fourth of July 250 celebrations to stand with immigrants
This isn’t the first display of tension between the Vice President and the leader of the Catholic Church, stemming from the Trump administration’s hardline position on immigration.
Charlie Jones Senior US News Reporter
10:12 ET, 21 Feb 2026
Pope Leo XIV turned down the invite
Pope Leo XIV turned down the invite (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Pope Leo XIV has given an embarrassing snub to US Vice President JD Vance by declining an official invitation to attend the upcoming July 4th 250th anniversary celebrations in the US – in order to go to an event supporting refugees instead.
The Pope, who comes from Chicago, will mark that date “on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa – a migrant gateway in the Mediterranean,” according to Christopher Hale, who documents Vatican affairs through his “Letters from Leo” reports.
It is just the latest sign of worsening relations between the Vatican and Washington.
“JD Vance personally invited Pope Leo to take part in the anniversary celebrations. Many assumed Trump and Vance would welcome the first American pope with open arms during this historic jubilee. But Pope Leo never accepted the offer,” Hale reports.
It comes hot on the heels of the Vatican also turning down an invitation to join President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. Additionally, the Vatican has discreetly confirmed the Pope has no intentions to visit the United States whatsoever in 2026.
“Instead, on the very day of America’s 250th, [the Pope] will kneel on a rocky outcrop closer to Tunisia than to Washington, bearing witness to those dying in desperate search of freedom,” Hale stated. “The contrast could not be sharper.
“President Trump envisions F-35 flyovers and fireworks in the capital’s sky; Pope Leo will stand under the same sun on Lampedusa, greeting strangers at the door.
“Trump wraps himself in the trappings of national glory, while Leo embraces what he calls the ‘moral obligation’ to welcome the migrant and refugee.
“Their clashing itineraries speak volumes about their clashing values,” Hale said.
The new Pope has positioned himself against the Trump administration’s hardline position on migration.
He opened the church’s penitential Lenten season by presiding over Ash Wednesday and lamenting the “ashes of international law and justice” that have been left by today’s wars and conflicts.
Pope Leo XIV’s decision not to participate in President Trump’s 250th anniversary celebration or his Board of Peace “is not a snub for snub’s sake. It is a conscious moral stance.
“The 70-year-old pontiff has made clear that true greatness is measured by our treatment of the least among us, not the size of our parades,” reports Hale.
“He has repeatedly condemned what he calls the ‘inhuman’ persecution of immigrant families, aligning the Church firmly against the mass deportations and border cruelty of the Trump era.”