Rubio arrives at Vatican to meet Pope Leo amid Trump attacks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived astatine the Vatican to conscionable Pope Leo XIV successful what is seen arsenic an effort to repair relations aft President Donald Trump’s repeated barbs against the pontiff.

The closed-door gathering is expected to instrumentality astir fractional an hr connected Thursday, and past Rubio volition conscionable his counterpart, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

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This is the archetypal known gathering betwixt the pope and a Trump authorities authoritative successful astir a year. Parolin said the gathering was requested by the US and Leo would perceive cautiously to what Rubio had to say.

“I ideate they’ll speech astir everything ⁠that has happened successful caller days,” helium was quoted arsenic saying by Reuters quality agency.

Relations betwixt Trump and Pope Leo person deteriorated sharply, driven by a barrage of nationalist attacks from the US person aft the pontiff became a vocal professional of the US-Israeli warfare connected Iran, drafting backlash from Christian leaders crossed the governmental spectrum.

The astir caller onslaught from Trump came connected Monday, erstwhile helium accused the pope of “endangering a batch of Catholics” by opposing the war, and falsely suggested the pontiff believed it was good for Iran to get atomic weapons.

Pope Leo denied that helium supported atomic weapons, which the Catholic Church teaches are immoral.

“The ngo of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace,” said ⁠the pope. “The Church has spoken retired for years against each atomic arms, connected that determination is nary doubt.”

‘Frank’ conversations

The US ⁠ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch told journalists connected Tuesday ⁠that the speech betwixt Leo and Rubio was apt to beryllium “frank”.

On Wednesday, Parolin described Trump’s attacks connected Pope Leo arsenic “strange”, successful comments cited by the Reuters quality agency. “I wouldn’t privation to get into judgments oregon idiosyncratic evaluations astir this,” the cardinal told journalists extracurricular an lawsuit adjacent the Vatican.

Rubio is besides acceptable to conscionable Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who has defended the pope against Trump’s attacks.

Pope Leo has grown progressively outspoken connected the satellite signifier successful caller weeks. During a four-country travel to Africa, helium declared the satellite was being “ravaged by a fistful of tyrants” – comments helium aboriginal said were not directed astatine Trump.

On Friday, Pope Leo, who became the archetypal American pontiff, volition people his archetypal twelvemonth starring the 1.4-billion-member Church.