Pope Leo XIV will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday amid strained relations after Trump’s criticism of the pontiff.
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, the Vatican said Monday, just weeks after serious criticism of the pontiff by US President Donald Trump.
The private visit with the top US diplomat, who is a Catholic, will take place at 11:30 am (0930 GMT), according to a calendar published on the Vatican’s media site.
A Vatican source on Sunday confirmed for AFP Italian media reports that the meeting was an attempt to “thaw” relations between the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics and the US government.
Rubio is also expected to meet Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani while in Rome, according to an Italian government source on Sunday.
Rubio had also asked for a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of Trump’s closest European allies, against whom he turned after she defended the pope, the source added.
Leo has increasingly spoken out against international conflicts and the politicians waging them, and last month issued his most forthright critique yet of the Trump administration’s actions.
Trump followed with a blistering critique of the first pope from the United States, calling him a “man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime” and accusing Leo of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon”, in a reference to Iran.
Trump later posted an AI-generated image apparently depicting himself as Jesus Christ.
Thursday’s visit will be the second time that the pope and Rubio have met. The secretary of state was received at the Vatican with US Vice President JD Vance in May 2025, just days after Leo was elected pope.
