Sen. Klobuchar meets Pope Leo at the Vatican with Ukrainian delegation

Sydney Kashiwagi, Star Tribune on Nov 21, 2025

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Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar met with Pope Leo XIV on Friday at the Vatican as part of a delegation visit from Ukraine that’s asking the church to help return more than 19,000 children who have been abducted during the ongoing war with Russia.

Klobuchar said she spoke with the first American pope for 20 minutes. They talked about the missing Ukrainian children and she thanked him for his support following the deadly Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting in Minneapolis.

After the shooting in August, which left two children dead and two dozen others injured, the pope sent a personal message of condolence to Minnesota families.

In a public prayer after the shooting, speaking in English, he also denounced the shooting and called for an end to the “pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world.”

Klobuchar said she and the pope did not speak further about policies around gun violence in America, but said that he had a “deep understanding” for the suffering of the Annunciation families.

“I told the pope how helpful the church was in kind of putting this perspective on the losses experienced by the families, both the ones who lost Fletcher and Harper, but also the ones that had kids that were seriously hurt,” Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar also gave the pope a copy of the resolution that passed out of the U.S. Senate honoring the victims of the Annunciation shooting.

The meeting comes several weeks after the passage of Klobuchar’s bill that aims to support Ukraine in its efforts to locate the missing children. It’s now waiting for a vote in the U.S. House, and she hopes it will be included in the defense spending bill in the lower chamber.

Klobuchar was invited by the delegation because of her work on the recent bill and support for Ukraine during the ongoing war.

Only 1,835 of the more than 19,000 missing children have been returned home, Klobuchar said. Four of the children who were reunited with their families also joined the meeting with Pope Leo.

During her visit, Klobuchar also spoke about the missing Ukrainian children with Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, and personal papal envoy for peace in Ukraine.

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