US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left the Vatican on Thursday after meeting Pope Leo XIV, a meeting that was expected to be tense after President Donald Trump's repeated attacks on the Catholic leader, Reuters reports.
Rubio spent two and a half hours at the Vatican before leaving in a convoy under tight security. He initially met with Leon before holding talks with senior Vatican officials, including the Holy See's top diplomat, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The Vatican and the US State Department did not immediately provide details about the meetings.
Rubio's meeting with Leon, the first between the pope and a member of Trump's cabinet in nearly a year, appears to have lasted longer than planned. The pope arrived 40 minutes late for a later meeting with Vatican employees and thanked them for their patience.
Photos released by the Vatican of the meeting showed Leon and Rubio shaking hands before sitting together at the pope's official office in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
Pope Leon, an increasingly vocal critic of the US president
Leon, the first US pope, drew Trump's ire after becoming a staunch critic of the US-Israeli war against Iran and the White House administration's tough anti-immigration policies.
The president has continued an unprecedented series of public attacks on the pope in recent weeks, prompting backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.
On Monday, Trump falsely suggested that the pope considered it acceptable for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and said that Leon was “endangering many Catholics” with his opposition to the war.
After the latest attack, the sovereign pontiff told reporters that he was spreading the Christian message of peace. The pope also strongly rejected the idea that he would support nuclear weapons, which the Catholic Church considers immoral.
“The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace,” the pope said. “The Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, there is no doubt about that,” he stressed.
During a tour of four African countries, Pope Leo last month strongly condemned the direction global leadership was heading and said the world was “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”, comments he later said were not aimed directly at Trump.
Unusual visit to Italy by the US Secretary of State
Rubio is Catholic, as is Vice President JD Vance. The two met Leon a year ago, after attending the Pope's inaugural mass.
Rubio said at a White House press conference on Tuesday that he expected to talk with Leon about Cuba and religious freedom concerns around the world.
He arrived in Rome on Thursday morning without any members of the press accompanying him on the plane, which is unusual for a US secretary of state.
Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, told reporters on Tuesday that the discussion between the pope and the cabinet official would likely be “direct”.
Rubio is in Rome for a two-day visit. He is due to meet Friday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has defended the pope in the face of Trump's attacks.
