Rubio tells Pope Leo 'great' to meet him amid tensions with Trump

VATICAN CITY - Pope Leo welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Vatican on Thursday for talks at a time when President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the pontiff over the Iran war have created unprecedented tensions with Washington.

Vatican video showed Leo shaking hands with his guest and addressing him formally as “Mr Secretary”, to which Rubio, a Catholic, responded: “Great to see you.” The two then sat down together at the pope’s official desk in the Apostolic Palace.

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

Trump 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. 

Rubio’s meeting with Leo is a sign of a “strong” relationship between the Vatican and the U.S., State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said. The Vatican did not immediately provide any comment on the meeting.

Rubio spent 2 1/2 hours at the Vatican before driving away in a convoy under tight security. He also met with senior Vatican officials, including top diplomat Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The U.S. embassy to the Holy See said on X that Leo and Rubio had discussed “topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere”.

Rubio had told a White House briefing on Tuesday that he expected to discuss Cuba and concerns over religious freedom around the world with Leo. The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, said, also on Tuesday, that the conversation between the pope and Rubio was likely to be “frank”.

The 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 meeting with Vatican staffers and thanked them for being patient.

‘Plant of peace’

Rubio was seen in the Vatican video giving the pope a small crystal football. He joked that he knew that Leo, originally from Chicago and known as a fan of the White Sox, was more of a “baseball guy”.

Leo gave Rubio a small pen made from wood from an olive tree, which he called “the plant of peace”.

In his public criticism of the pope, Trump on Monday falsely suggested that Leo believed it was okay for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and that he was “endangering a lot of Catholics” by opposing the war.

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 Leo. “The Church has spoken out for years against all nuclear arms, on that there is no doubt.”

As Rubio arrived at the Vatican earlier on Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was leaving 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,” Tusk said, speaking in Polish.

Leo has grown more outspoken

Leo, who on Friday 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 last month, 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 Trump. 

Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, who is also a Catholic, met Leo a year ago after attending the pope’s inaugural mass. Trump has not met the pontiff.

During his two-day visit to Rome, Rubio is due to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has defended the pope from Trump, on Friday. Meloni’s defence minister has said the war in Iran puts U.S. leadership at risk. 

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 10:06 AM.