JD Vance gave the newly anointed Pope Leo XIV a custom Chicago Bears jersey and a letter inviting him to the White House from Donald Trump.

The jersey from the professional NFL football team has “Pope Leo” and the number XIV written on the back.

It was given to the pontiff in addition to two seminal works by St Augustine in an early morning meeting between the Holy See and the visiting US delegation of Mr Vance and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, both of whom are Roman Catholics.

“As you can probably imagine, people in the United States are extremely excited about you,” Mr Vance told the Pope as they exchanged gifts.

Upon handing the first American pope a letter from Mr Trump and the first lady inviting him to the White House, the pontiff could be heard saying “at some point” in Vatican video footage, with Mr Vance replying, “of course”.

The Chicago-born Pope already has a jersey and a hat from his home town White Sox baseball team, who sent it to him after his election earlier this month when it emerged he was a fan.

“Our Chicago friends are ecstatic,” one visiting American tourist told The Telegraph, jokingly referring to him as “the White Sox pope”.

For his part, Pope Leo gave Mr Vance a bronze sculpture with the Italian phrase “Peace is a fragile flower” and a coffee table book of the palace where they were meeting.

“There was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” noted the Holy See press office.

The White House said Mr Vance “discussed religious freedom, the persecution of Christians around the world, and the shared commitment of President Trump and Pope Leo XIV to stop the killing in Ukraine and the Middle East”.

According to a photo released by the Vatican, Leo’s brother, Louis Prevost, a self-described “Maga-type,” and his wife, Deborah, joined the delegation during the visit.