Pope Leo XIV will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican on May 7, in a high-level encounter that comes after a period of public strain between the Holy See and President Donald Trump.
The meeting was confirmed by the Holy See Press Office on May 4. According to the US State Department, Rubio is expected to discuss the situation in the Middle East and other shared international concerns with Vatican officials during his visit to Rome.
The audience follows several weeks of unusually sharp rhetoric between the Pope and the Trump camp. In April, Trump attacked Leo on social media after the Pope renewed his appeals for peace amid the US-Israel war with Iran. The president accused him of weakness on crime and foreign policy and later suggested that Leo was too soft in his approach to the Iranian nuclear issue.
