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”.