US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will sit down with Pope Leo XIV on Thursday amid a historic period of tension between Washington and the Vatican.
Rubio’s go to follows President Donald Trump’s extraordinary criticisms of the primary American pope within the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year historical past, which got here after the pontiff expressed his opposition to the US navy operation in Iran. Leo has additionally continued to converse for the pursuits of refugees and migrants, in sharp distinction to the Trump administration.
Ahead of his departure, the highest US diplomat dismissed the notion that the assembly with Pope Leo is an try to re-set diplomatic relations with the Vatican, which the US has relied on as a humanitarian associate for years. He did acknowledge, nevertheless, that “there’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican,” together with Cuba.
“The trip is really not tied to anything other than the fact that it would be normal for us to engage with them,” Rubio stated at a White House press briefing Tuesday.
His journey to Rome and the Vatican comes as Trump has lashed out not solely on the pope for his views on the conflict but additionally lambasted the US’ longtime European allies – additional testing the transatlantic relationship in methods not seen in many years. Rubio will meet on Friday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni amid ongoing criticism by Trump for what he stated was Italy’s lack of help for the US’ conflict in opposition to Iran.
Rubio will meet the pope within the Vatican’s apostolic palace on Thursday morning, and he’s additionally anticipated to sit down with different prime Vatican officers together with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State.
It is the second assembly between Rubio, who’s a religious Catholic, and the Chicago-born pope, and the primary recognized assembly between a member of the administration and Leo in virtually a yr. Rubio and Vice President JD Vance met him after his inauguration mass final yr.
In a prolonged Truth Social publish final month, Trump criticized Leo as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
“Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church!,” Trump wrote.
Pope Leo responded a day later that he had “no fear” of the Trump administration and would proceed talking for peace however insisted that it was “not in my interest” to debate the US president. One Vatican official, later enjoying down the tensions, instructed NCS with a wry smile that “President Trump is too intelligent to be in a battle with a pope from the United States”.
But Trump’s assaults on Leo will not be solely unprecedented, however ongoing. On Monday, Trump as soon as once more took intention on the pope, saying that he was “endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people” with Trump claiming Leo is blissful with Iran having a nuclear weapon.
The feedback appeared to draw a rebuke from Italy’s overseas minister, who on Tuesday stated that the assaults in opposition to the pontiff weren’t acceptable nor useful to the trigger of peace.
On Tuesday, Leo stated that individuals are free to criticize him, though they need to “do so with the truth” and that “the mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel and peace.” On Trump’s claims about nuclear weapons, the pope stated the church has for years “spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point.” Rubio on Tuesday downplayed Trump’s newest broadside.
Since his election final May, the primary American pope has not had any direct contact – in accordance to the general public file – with Trump. The Vatican has made it clear that there will likely be no papal go to to the United States in 2026, largely due to the November mid-term elections with the pope not visiting nations within the run-up to elections.
Tensions have additionally been rising following information that, on January 22, the Pentagon held an uncommon assembly with the then papal ambassador to the United States. While each the Vatican and Pentagon rejected some of the reporting about what was mentioned, one Vatican supply described the assembly to NCS as “unprecedented” and that it was “tense”.
Officials say Thursday’s assembly will mark an try to transfer past the general public back-and forth and return to the behind-the-scenes diplomacy favored by the Holy See. Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official, sees the pope-Rubio assembly as “cooling the rhetoric” whereas Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, instructed reporters this week that the secretary of state is coming to have “a frank conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue.”
And although the first function of the journey will not be political, there may be probably an upside if Rubio can dampen tensions. While many Catholics voted for Trump’s re-election, some consultants query the political rationale of attacking the pope with NCS’s chief information analyst, Harry Enten, highlighting Pope Leo’s constructive ballot scores. After criticizing the pope, the president additionally posted – after which deleted – an AI-image of himself as a Christ-like determine, which he later stated depicted him as a physician.
One of the subjects additionally doubtless to be mentioned on Thursday is Cuba. The Trump administration has ratcheted up its financial blockade of the island because it makes an attempt to power Havana right into a political deal and the US president has continued to elevate the specter of navy intervention.
The Vatican, in the meantime, is lively diplomatically in Cuba and helped to dealer the latest launch of prisoners. The Trump administration has labored with the Catholic Church to distribute $6 million in humanitarian support on the island, Rubio stated Tuesday.
“We’re willing to get more humanitarian aid to Cuba, by the way, distributed through the church,” Rubio added.
Francesco Sisci, the director of the Appia Institute, a thinktank that follows Vatican diplomacy, stated, “they will talk about Cuba, and it would be strange if they don’t. But the devil is in the detail.” While he stated the Vatican can be supportive of a “transition” in Cuba’s political management, asking the pope to bless any violent motion could be very troublesome.
Sisci instructed NCS that the church will “take into account the good will” of Rubio coming to the Vatican however will likely be “wary of manipulation.” He likened assembly as a modern-day “Canossa,” referring to the time when the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, in 1077 made a public apology and submission to Pope Gregory VII.
Rubio on Tuesday additionally prompt that the 2 sides would discover frequent floor on issues in regards to the persecution of Christian minorities in Africa, the place Leo just lately visited.
“We have a lot to talk about with them, and I engage with them quite a bit on that front,” he stated.
Still, the areas of disagreement between the papacy and the Trump administration are vital. Christopher White, a senior fellow on the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University stated the conflict in Iran will likely be “top of the agenda” for the assembly alongside with “the treatment of migrants and the marginalized, AI” and USAID cuts.
“After the president’s unprecedented attack on the pope — and the blasphemous use of religious imagery — this is the administration’s attempt to reset relations with the Vatican and likely to help make amends with the many Catholics appalled by such behavior,” stated White, who hung out with Leo XIV earlier than his election and is the creator of “Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.”