Pope Leo XIV greets U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, proper, upon his arrival for talks within the pope’s non-public library on the Vatican.
Vatican Media through AP/Vatican Media
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Vatican Media through AP/Vatican Media
MILAN, Italy (RNS) – Amid a rising public rift between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump — arguably the 2 most influential American-born figures on this planet — Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Vatican on Thursday in search of to spotlight widespread floor between the Holy See and the Trump administration.
Rubio’s assembly with Vatican officers lasted roughly two and a half hours and centered on “the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” in accordance with a press release from the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.
Rubio additionally met along with his Vatican counterpart, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and “reviewed ongoing humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere and efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East,” in accordance with the spokesperson for the U.S. Division of State, Tommy Pigott.
However the timing of the go to led some Vatican observers to interpret it as an effort to chill tensions after weeks of more and more sharp exchanges between Leo and Trump.
In April, Trump accused Leo in a prolonged social media put up of being “weak on crime” following the pope’s continued appeals for peace and nuclear disarmament. Talking on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” on Could 4, the president accused Leo of being sympathetic to Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,” he stated.
In response, Leo replied that “the mission of the church is to proclaim the gospel, to preach peace.”
“If someone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the gospel, let them do so truthfully. For years, the church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt on that point,” he added.
The primary main rift between Leo and the Trump administration got here in October of final 12 months, when the pope criticized “inhumane” therapy of migrants. Through the Easter season this 12 months, the pope underlined the significance of peace because the U.S.-Israeli battle escalated with Iran and he decried Trump’s risk to eradicate Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable.”
The go to by Rubio, a son of immigrants and essentially the most distinguished Catholic within the Trump cupboard after Vice President JD Vance, might be seen as an effort to “reverse” the detrimental trajectory, in accordance with the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Tradition and Schooling.
The assembly is an try “to return the confrontation to a quieter, more institutional register,” Spadaro wrote in an evaluation on Tuesday. “Diplomats have a term for this kind of work: cooling the rhetoric. It is the necessary precondition for any substantive realignment, whenever that might come.”
Rubio denied the assembly was meant to easy over relations in a press convention on Tuesday on the White Home. “It’s a trip we had planned from before,” he stated, whereas acknowledging that “obviously, we had some stuff that happened.”
Rubio additionally defended Trump’s criticism of the pontiff, stating that “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon because they would use it against places that have a lot of Catholics, including Christians and others for that matter.”
Whereas previously, Rubio appeared to downplay the political significance of the papacy, his remarks at Tuesday’s press convention acknowledged Leo as “also the head of a nation-state.”
There may be “a lot to talk about with the Vatican,” he stated, underlining their shared issues about non secular freedom. “It’s an organization that has a presence in over 100-something countries around the world, and we engage with the Vatican quite a bit because they’re present in many different places.”
