U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Pope amid diplomatic tensions

on May 7, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. The talks took place against the backdrop of a significant cooling of relations between the administration of President Donald Trump and the head of the Catholic Church. This is reported by The Guardian.

The audience lasted about two hours, after which Rubio held additional talks with representatives of the Vatican, in particular with the head of the diplomatic department, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin. At the moment, neither the press service of the U.S. State Department nor the Holy See has provided official details about the content of the conversation.

U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Birch said Rubio’s visit was meant to be a «frank conversation» about the Trump administration’s political course. Tensions between the parties increased after the recent harsh statements of the American President to the pontiff, to which the Vatican responded with a statement that the Pope intends to follow his own path, regardless of external pressure.

Recall, earlier US President Donald Trump made a harsh statement to Pope Leo XIV, calling him «absolutely incompetent in matters of foreign policy». The reason for criticism were the statements of the pontiff regarding the war with Iran and American foreign policy in general.