Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that he has plenty to talk about when he meets with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican this week, beyond the criticism President Trump has directed at the pontiff.
Speaking at a White House press briefing, Mr. Rubio insisted his trip is not about smoothing over relations between Washington and the Holy See. He said it had been planned before the most recent spat between Mr. Trump and Leo, and that he has a long list of topics to discuss with the pontiff.
“There’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican,” Mr. Rubio said, listing religious freedom, humanitarian aid to Cuba and the Catholic church growing in Africa.
“The pope just returned from a trip to Africa, where the church is growing very vibrantly and we have shared concerns about religious freedom, religious freedom in different parts of the world,” he said. “We gave Cuba $5 million of humanitarian aid, but obviously they won’t let us distribute it. We distributed it through the church. We’d like to do more.”
Mr. Rubio is scheduled to meet with Leo on Thursday and sit down with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday.
His comments come one day after Mr. Trump renewed his criticism of the pope’s call for peace over the Iran war. The president said Tuesday that Leo’s stance is “endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people” and that the head of the Catholic Church said it was “OK For Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
The pope has said no such thing and told reporters that Mr. Trump had misrepresented his remarks, while doubling down on his call for peace and dialogue in the joint U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Leo said that the Catholic Church “for years has spoken out against all nuclear weapons so there is no doubt there.” He pointed to the Catholic Church’s teaching that says even possession of a nuclear weapon is “immoral.”
“I’ve spoken from the first moment of being elected and we’re nearing the anniversary: I said, ’Peace be with you,’” the pontiff told reporters.
“The mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo said. “And so I hope simply to be listened to about the value of the Word of God.”
Mr. Rubio said the president’s words have been misinterpreted.
“What the president basically said is that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon because they would use it against places that have a lot of Catholics and Christians and others,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s comments about the pope drew a sharp rebuke from Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who is also expected to meet with Mr. Rubio on Friday.
Mr. Tajani wrote on social media that Mr. Trump’s comments “are neither acceptable nor helpful to the cause of peace.”
“I reaffirm my support for every action and word of Pope Leo; his words are a testament to dialogue, the value of human life, and freedom. This is a vision shared by our government, which is committed through diplomacy to ensuring stability and peace in all areas where conflicts exist,” Mr. Tajani wrote.
The rift between Mr. Trump and Leo, the first pope to be born in the U.S., widened in April after the pope’s criticism of the Iran war. He also criticized people who use Christian teachings to promote the war, which many viewed as a thinly veiled attack on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Mr. Trump fired back at the pope in a scathing social media post, calling him “weak on crime” and “catering to the Radical Left.”
Leo, who had avoided using Mr. Trump’s name, then responded more forcefully.
“I have no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking loudly about the message of the Gospel,” he told reporters. “And that’s what I believe I am called here to do.”
