Duda was received in the Courtyard of St. Damasus before a private audience with the pope in the library of the Apostolic Palace, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.
After the meeting, Duda held talks with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and later laid a wreath at the tomb of St. John Paul II in the Chapel of St. Sebastian inside St. Peter’s Basilica, his office said.
John Paul II, the late Polish-born pope, led the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was declared a saint in 2014.
Polish President Andrzej Duda (left) arrives for a private audience with Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday, July 3, 2025. Photo: KPRP/Polish President's Office
The Polish president first spoke with Leo after the Mass inaugurating the pontiff on May 18, according to Duda's office.
Top Polish leaders extended congratulations after American Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope on May 8, taking the name Leo XIV.
Duda called the moment "deeply moving for the community of the Catholic Church and for the entire world."
He wrote in a post at the time that Poland "has shared a special bond of spiritual unity" with the Vatican for over a thousand years, and said the country remained committed to strengthening ties with the Church "in the name of shared values, responsibility for the common good, and the pursuit of global peace."
Duda's visit to the Vatican is one of his final foreign trips as president. His second term as Poland's head of state expires on August 6.
His successor, President-elect Karol Nawrocki, is scheduled to be sworn in before both houses of parliament in Warsaw that day.
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Source: IAR, PAP, prezydent.pl