Pope Leo and Rubio hold ‘friendly’, ‘constructive’ talks at Vatican

VATICAN CITY - Talks between Pope Leo XIV and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio following weeks of Vatican-White House tensions were “friendly and constructive”, a State Department official said.

“The conversations today were friendly and constructive”, the official said after Mr Rubio, a devout Catholic who has sought to play down the rift, met Pope Leo and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.

Mr Rubio left the Vatican after seeing Pope Leo in what had been expected to have been a fraught meeting following US President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war.

Mr Rubio spent 2½ hours at the Vatican before driving away in a convoy under tight security. He met initially with Pope Leo before sitting down with senior Vatican officials, including Cardinal Parolin.

His meeting with Leo, the first between the pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year, appeared to have run longer than planned. The pope arrived 40 minutes late for a subsequent appointment with Vatican staffers, and thanked them for being patient.

Vatican photos of the meeting showed Pope Leo and Mr Rubio shaking hands before sitting down together at the pope’s official desk in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

Leo, the first US pope, drew Mr Trump’s ire after becoming a firm critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration policies.

The president has kept up an unprecedented series of public attacks on the pope in recent weeks, drawing a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.

On May 4, Mr Trump falsely suggested the pope believed it was okay for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and said Leo was “endangering a lot of Catholics” by opposing the war.

Pope Leo told journalists after the latest attack that he was spreading the Christian message of peace. The pope also firmly rejected the idea that he supported nuclear weapons, which the Catholic Church teaches are ​immoral.

“The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace,” said the pope. “The Church has spoken out for years against ​all nuclear arms, on that there is ⁠no doubt.”

As Mr Rubio arrived at the Vatican earlier on May 7, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was leaving from a meeting with Leo. He told journalists he and the pope discussed how to strengthen international cooperation and generate hope in the world.

“It is still possible that the world does not have to descend into chaos, if good people, people of goodwill, find one another and act in unity,” Mr Tusk said, speaking in Polish.

Frank conversation

Leo, who on May 8 marks his first year leading the 1.4-billion-member Church, has grown more outspoken on the world stage in recent weeks.

During a four-nation African tour in April he forcefully decried the direction of global leadership and said the world was “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, in comments he later said were not aimed directly at Mr Trump.

Mr Rubio is Catholic, as is Vice-President J.D. Vance. The two met Leo a year ago after attending the pope’s inaugural mass.

Mr Rubio said at a White House briefing on May 5 that he expected to discuss Cuba and concerns over religious freedom around the world with Leo.

He arrived in Rome earlier on May 7 without any press accompanying him on his plane, which is unusual for a US secretary of state.

The US ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, told journalists earlier on May 5 that the conversation between the pope and cabinet official was likely to be “frank”.

Mr Rubio is visiting Rome for two days. He is due to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has defended the pope from Mr Trump, on May 7. Ms Meloni’s defence minister has also said the war in Iran puts leadership at risk. REUTERS