US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on 7 May for talks focused on Iran, humanitarian aid, and global conflicts, amid tensions between President Donald Trump and the pope.
Rubio spent more than 45 minutes with Pope Leo XIV before meeting with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister.
The Vatican said the meetings reaffirmed “the shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America” and stressed “the need to work tirelessly to promote peace.”
Rubio later said he met the pope “to underscore our shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity.” The visit came days after Trump claimed the pope supported Iran having nuclear weapons, a charge the pope swiftly rejected, saying, “The Church has spoken out for years against all nuclear weapons.”
The meeting with Rubio was one of several audiences on the pope’s schedule that day. Pope Leo also met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, bishops from Burkina Faso and Niger, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, and members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.
