U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived at the Vatican for a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, a visit seen as an attempt to repair relations after a series of public attacks by President Donald Trump directed at the pontiff.
The meeting is expected to last about 30 minutes, after which Rubio will hold talks with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Vatican officials said the U.S. requested the visit and that the pope would listen closely to Rubio’s remarks.
“I imagine they’ll talk about everything that has happened in recent days,” Parolin told reporters, according to Reuters.
This is the first known encounter between Pope Leo and an official from the Trump administration in nearly a year. Tensions have risen after the pope publicly opposed a potential U.S.-Israel war on Iran, drawing sharp criticism from Trump and pushback from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.
On Monday, Trump accused the pope of “endangering a lot of Catholics” by opposing the war and suggested—incorrectly—that the pontiff supported Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Pope Leo rejected that characterization, reaffirming the Church’s long-standing stance that nuclear arms are immoral.
“The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace,” the pope said. “The Church has spoken out for years against all nuclear arms – on that there is no doubt.”
Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, told journalists the exchange between the pope and Rubio would likely be “frank.” Parolin characterized Trump’s attacks as “strange,” while declining to make personal judgments about the matter.
Rubio is also scheduled to meet Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has publicly defended the pope in the wake of Trump’s criticism. In recent weeks Pope Leo has become more outspoken on global affairs: during a four-country trip to Africa he said the world was being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” a remark he later said was not directed at President Trump.
On Friday, Pope Leo—the first American pontiff—will mark his first year as leader of the Catholic Church, which serves roughly 1.4 billion members worldwide.