![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/002453c6-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMarco Rubio gives a thumbs up as he arrives at Rome’s Ciampino airport<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit the Pope Leo XIV seeking to ease tensions between the US and the Vatican while also promoting President Donald Trump’s interests.<\/p>\n
Mr Rubio will arrive in the Vatican weeks after President Trump’s extraordinary criticism of Leo, the first US pope, over his anti-war stance.<\/p>\n
Mr Rubio, a devout Catholic, sought to play down the rift ahead of the private audience, which will be followed by talks with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.<\/p>\n
For the Vatican’s part, “we’ll listen to him”, Cardinal Parolin told reporters, noting that the US initiated the meeting.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration had celebrated the election of Leo, but its relations with the Holy See have since sharply deteriorated.<\/p>\n
\nMarco Rubio gives a thumbs up as he arrives at Rome’s Ciampino airport<\/p>\n
In an unprecedented attack, Mr Trump last month took to social media to call the pope “weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy”.<\/p>\n
His remarks came after Leo called for peace in the Middle East war launched by Israel and the United States, and condemned a threat by Trump to destroy Iranian civilisation as “truly unacceptable”.<\/p>\n
Before flying to Rome, Mr Rubio said the trip had been planned before the clash, “and obviously we had some stuff that happened”.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican,” he told reporters at the White House, noting particularly the issue of religious freedom, on which the Vatican and the US agree.<\/p>\n
At an event at the Vatican, Cardinal Parolin said: “I imagine we’ll talk about everything that’s happened in recent days, we can’t avoid touching on these topics.”<\/p>\n
But he said they would also discuss international issues, including Latin America, Cuba and Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The Holy See has long played an active role in Cuban diplomacy, while Mr Rubio, a Cuban-American, has led the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure the communist government.<\/p>\n
Watch: Pope Leo says he will continue to speak out against war<\/b><\/p>\n
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Pope Leo also knows Latin America well, having spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, even acquiring Peruvian citizenship.<\/p>\n
Despite the peace-making attempt, Mr Trump again criticised the pope in an interview late on Monday, alleging that the pontiff believes it is “OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.<\/p>\n
“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,” President Trump said of the pope.<\/p>\n
Read More: Asked about the latest comments on Tuesday, Pope Leo said that the Catholic Church’s mission was to “preach peace” and the Gospel.<\/p>\n “If anyone wishes to criticise me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n “The Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, so there is no doubt about that, and I simply hope to be heard for the sake of the value of God’s word.”<\/p>\n Cardinal Parolin said that attacking the pope “seems a little strange to me”, adding: “The pope is being the pope.”<\/p>\n Pope Leo’s nationality means his words carry more weight in the US than those of his predecessors, and he has used them, notably criticising the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.<\/p>\n But it was the pontiff’s increasing anti-war rhetoric that triggered Mr Trump’s ire.<\/p>\n Pope Leo and Mr Rubio met for the first time last year at the Vatican alongside US Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, just days after Leo’s election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit the Pope Leo XIV seeking to ease tensions between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-472699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116532546611846159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Trump refuses to apologise to ‘very weak’ Pope Leo<\/a>
President versus Pope: How feud with Leo could hurt Trump<\/a>
Trump posts image of himself with Jesus after Pope criticism<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n![\"marco](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/002453c5-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMarco Rubio and JD Vance met Pope Leo last year<\/p>\n