Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to travel to Vatican City this week for a meeting with Pope Leo XIV, a delicate diplomatic mission aimed at easing tensions after President Donald Trump's public attacks on the first American pontiff drew criticism across political and religious circles.
The meeting is expected to take place Thursday, according to Reuters, which cited a senior Vatican source familiar with the pope's plans. Rubio is scheduled to visit Italy from May 6 to 8 and meet with Vatican officials, including Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, as well as Italian leaders.
The trip comes after weeks of friction between the Trump administration and Pope Leo, who has become increasingly outspoken against the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and previously criticized Trump's hard-line immigration policies.
Trump sharply criticized Leo on social media in April, at one point calling the pontiff "terrible" while the pope was on a four-nation Africa tour.
Rubio, a Catholic and one of Trump's most visible foreign policy officials, is expected to discuss Middle East developments and Western Hemisphere issues with Vatican leaders. The visit is being watched closely because it represents the first known in-person meeting between Pope Leo and a U.S. Cabinet official in nearly a year.
It has also been interpreted as a slight against Vice President JD Vance, the highest Catholic official in the Trump administration.
The Vatican meeting also comes as Trump's relationship with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of his strongest European allies, faces strain. Reuters reported that Meloni said she would not support a possible U.S. troop withdrawal from Italy after Trump suggested the United States could consider pulling forces from Italy and Spain. Rubio is also expected to meet Italian officials during the trip.
For Rubio, the assignment is unusually sensitive. He is not only Trump's secretary of state, but also a prominent Catholic Republican trying to manage a public rupture between a Republican president and an American pope whose criticism has touched some of the administration's most controversial policies.
The meeting could give Rubio a chance to lower the temperature before the dispute becomes a deeper political problem for Trump at home, where Catholic voters remain an important constituency. It also gives the Vatican an opportunity to press its concerns directly with Washington as the Iran war, immigration enforcement, and Latin America policy continue to divide the White House and the Holy See.
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