Secretary of State Marco Rubio kicked off a two-day visit to Vatican City and Italy Thursday by meeting Pope Leo XIV, days after President Trump claimed the first American-born pontiff was “endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people.”
Leo has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration over its hardline immigration policies and, more recently, over the war in Iran. The president has responded aggressively, attacking the Bishop of Rome last month as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.“
“The pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview broadcast Monday. “And I don’t think that’s very good. I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people.”
The pope and his allies have insisted he is merely conveying Biblical teachings with no ulterior political motive.
“The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo told reporters Tuesday, adding that the Catholic Church “for years has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.”
The pope noted that the Catholic Church has always permitted countries to act in self-defense and acknowledged the church’s “just war” tradition.
However, due to the advent of more powerful and destructive weapons, “the whole concept of war has to be reevaluated in terms today,” he said. “And I always believe that it’s much better to enter into dialogue than to look for arms.”
Rubio was also due to meet with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who said Wednesday that Washington had requested Rubio’s audience with Leo.
“We cannot ignore the United States,” Parolin said. “Despite some difficulties, they certainly remain a key partner for the Holy See, not least because they play a role in almost every situation we face today.”
Rubio himself told reporters at the White House Tuesday that the Vatican stop had been planned for a while before “we had some stuff that happened,” an apparent reference to the jabs by Trump.
The secretary specifically cited religious freedom across the world and the role of the church in distributing humanitarian aid in Cuba as issues he wanted to discuss with Leo.
The dispute between Trump and the pope has driven a wedge between the American president and Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who called his “weak” criticism of the religious leader “unacceptable” and argued it is “right and normal for [the pope] to call for peace and to condemn every form of war.”
Trump fired back at Meloni, telling an Italian newspaper of the conservative PM: “She’s the one who’s unacceptable.”
Rubio, himself a practicing Catholic, is due to meet with Meloni and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajanion Friday.
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