Vice President J.D. Vance has called the Catholic Church “so much bigger than politics” as he expressed disappointment about the preoccupation with American politics that has defined the election of Pope Leo XIV.

Leo XIV is the first Pope from the Order of St. Augustine.

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“He is a person of great gentility, a great listener,” Fr. Tony Banks, a friend of the new pope and the Assistant General of the religious Order of St. Augustine, told CNN.