VATICAN CITY/WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday he expected to discuss Cuba and concerns over religious freedom around the world with Pope Leo during his visit to the Vatican on Thursday, after President Donald Trump took a fresh potshot at the pope for criticising the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See said earlier that Rubio and the pope would “have a frank conversation about U.S. policy, to engage in dialogue.”
“Nations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is … through fraternity and authentic dialogue,” Ambassador Brian Burch said.
In Washington, Rubio told reporters at the White House that he expected to discuss religious freedom around the world, with a focus on Africa, and humanitarian aid to Cuba with the pope.
“There’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican,” Rubio said. “The pope is obviously the vicar of Christ, is a Roman Catholic, but he’s also the head of a nation-state.”
“We work with the Catholic Church on the distribution of humanitarian aid in Cuba. We share with the Catholic Church a concern about the destruction of religious liberty, the persecution of Christian minorities, and also, you know, the challenges that are being faced by Christians in Africa,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly disparaged the first U.S.-born pope in recent weeks, drawing a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.
Rubio said his trip to the Vatican was planned before Trump’s rift with the pope.
“No, I mean it’s a trip we had planned from before, and obviously we had some stuff that happened,” Rubio said when asked if the trip was Washington’s attempt “to smooth things over with the pope.”
On Monday, Trump told right-wing radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt that “the Pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good.”
Leo has never said Iran should have nuclear weapons, but he has opposed the war which Trump says is aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear program.
Tehran, which does not have nuclear weapons, denies seeking them but says it has the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The U.S. is nuclear-armed.
Responding to Trump’s attack, Leo said he wanted to spread the Christian message by speaking about peace but that people were free to criticise him.
“The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace,” said the pope. “If someone wants to criticise me for preaching the Gospel … I hope simply to be listened to because of the value of God’s words.”
Leo also firmly rejected the idea that he supported nuclear weapons, which the Catholic Church teaches are immoral. “The Church has spoken out for years against all nuclear arms, on that there is no doubt,” he said.
Rubio will ‘talk through’ differences with pope
Rubio is Catholic, as is Vice President JD Vance. The two met Leo a year ago after attending his inaugural Mass.
Burch was asked after an event hosted by his embassy at Rome’s Gregorian University on Tuesday if Rubio was hoping to repair Trump’s relationship with Leo.
“I don’t accept the idea that somehow there’s some deep rift,” the ambassador responded. Rubio is coming, Burch said, so the U.S. and the Vatican can “better understand each other, and to work through, if there are differences, certainly to talk through that.”
On Friday, Rubio is also set to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has defended the pope. Her defense minister has said the Iran war puts U.S. leadership at risk.
Leo, who on Friday marks his first anniversary as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, maintained a relatively low profile on the global stage in the first months of his papacy but has emerged in recent weeks as a firm critic of the war on Iran.
The pope has also sharply criticised the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration policies. And he has called for dialogue between the U.S. and Catholic-majority Cuba, which has suffered frequent blackouts owing to U.S. sanctions that Washington says aim to put pressure on Cuba’s one-party Communist government.
Story by Joshua McElwee, Steve Holland and Kanishka Singh.
