The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is to meet Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday in an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump\u2019s repeated criticisms of the first North American pontiff.<\/p>\n
Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio is expected to meet Leo at the Apostolic Palace in the morning, before holding a series of meetings with the Italian government.<\/p>\n
Trump on Tuesday accused the pope of supporting nuclear weapons <\/a>and \u201cendangering a lot of Catholics\u2019\u2019 with his stance against the Iran war, in the latest attack by the US president on the pontiff.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Leo responded: \u201cIf anyone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the gospel, let them do so with the truth: the church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, there is no doubt about that. I simply hope to be listened to because of the value of God\u2019s word.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubio downplayed the rift between Trump and Leo<\/a> and told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the president\u2019s recent criticism of the pontiff was rooted in his opposition to Iran potentially obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could be used against millions of Catholics around the world.<\/p>\n Trump \u201cdoesn\u2019t understand why anyone \u2013 leave aside the pope \u2013 would think that it\u2019s a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n Pope Leo XIV greeting the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, in January. Photograph: Vatican Media Handout\/EPA<\/p>\n Relations between the Vatican and Washington have never been so fraught. In April, the US president lashed out at Leo over the pope\u2019s criticism of the war in Iran<\/a>, branding him \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible on foreign policy\u201d, and claiming he had only been elected pontiff because Trump himself occupied the White House. Trump later shared \u2013 before deleting \u2013 an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rubio\u2019s likely goal is to try to smooth over Trump\u2019s insults and repair increasingly damaged ties between the US and the Vatican<\/a>. According to several analysts, the secretary of state is expected to defend Washington\u2019s rationale for launching the war in Iran, while carefully avoiding a direct clash with the church\u2019s position.<\/p>\n Asked whether he placed greater trust in Rubio or Trump, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, told reporters<\/a> on Tuesday: \u201cI count on no one. I count only on our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d He added that Trump attacking Leo \u201cin this way, or reproaching him for what he does, seems rather strange, to say the least\u201d.<\/p>\n Rubio will meet the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, on Friday as relations between Rome and Washington have also deteriorated.<\/p>\n Lorenzo Castellani, a political historian at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, said Trump\u2019s attacks on the pope, which have provoked widespread outrage in Italy<\/a> where the papacy plays a crucial role in the political and cultural imagination, \u2018\u2018has effectively forced Meloni to distance herself from the US president\u2019\u2019, despite, earlier this year, saying she hoped Trump would one day receive the Nobel peace prize.<\/p>\n According to some Italian newspapers<\/a>, Rubio\u2019s goal in talks with Italy will not necessarily be to mend relations, but rather to reassert Trump\u2019s position after the US president lashed out at Meloni in April<\/a>, accusing her of lacking courage for refusing to join the US campaign against Iran.<\/p>\n According to Castellani, Meloni\u2019s shift from being a staunch Trump ally to adopting a more critical stance towards the US president is driven by political and electoral considerations.<\/p>\n \u2018\u2018For the first time since the second world war, foreign policy has become a central concern for Italian public opinion,\u2019\u2019 Castellani said. \u2018\u2018This shift had already begun with the war in Ukraine, but the current crisis represents a decisive escalation. The reason is simple: this is a conflict with direct geopolitical and economic consequences for Italy and for Europe<\/a> as a whole.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018For this reason, he added, \u201cMeloni can no longer maintain a clear separation between foreign and domestic policy. In the past, she has taken positions that ran counter to segments of her own electorate. But now, recent polling suggests that across both the right and the left there is broad agreement in condemning the position of Trump. The same sentiments now cut across a vast portion of the electorate \u2013 arguably as much as 80 to 90%.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Also expected to feature prominently in the talks is the future of the roughly 13,000 US military personnel stationed across seven naval bases in Italy.<\/p>\n