Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday in a visit that placed one of the Trump administration's most visible Catholic officials face-to-face with the first American pope after the President openly criticized the pontiff.
The Vatican said Rubio and Leo "renewed the shared commitment" to good bilateral relations and "the need to work tirelessly in favour of peace." The State Department framed said the meeting underscored the "strong relationship" between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to "promoting peace and human dignity."
Met with @Pontifex to underscore our shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity. pic.twitter.com/BIZ9SfW5nY
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 7, 2026
Rubio spent about two and a half hours at the Vatican, where he first met privately with Pope Leo and later sat down with senior Vatican officials, including Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Rubio and Parolin discussed humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere, religious freedom, and "efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East."
Good to see Cardinal Parolin today at the Vatican. The United States and Holy See partnership in advancing religious freedom is strong. pic.twitter.com/I6HzE9EPog
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 7, 2026
The visit came after weeks of friction between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo over the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Trump has accused the pope of being too soft on Tehran and falsely suggested that Leo believed Iran should be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. Leo rejected that claim, saying the church's mission is to "preach peace" and noting that Catholic teaching has long opposed nuclear weapons.
Rubio, a practicing Catholic and one of Trump's top foreign policy voices, defended the president before the trip, saying Trump's concern was about the threat Iran could pose to places with large Christian and Catholic populations. "Why anyone would think that it's a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon" was the issue, Rubio told reporters Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera.
Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, is the first U.S.-born pope and marks his first year leading the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church this week. Rubio and Vice President JD Vance met Leo last year after attending the pope's inaugural Mass, but Thursday's audience was the first known meeting between the pontiff and a Trump Cabinet official in nearly a year.
Video of the meeting showed Leo greeting Rubio as "Mr. Secretary," while Rubio replied, "Great to see you." Rubio gave the pope a small crystal football, joking that he knew Leo, a Chicago native and White Sox fan, was more of a "baseball guy." Leo gave Rubio a pen made from olive wood, calling it "the plant of peace."
