State Secretary Marco Rubio’s meet and greet with Pope Leo XIV didn’t squash the White House’s beef with the Vatican—instead, it seemed to emphasize it.
Rubio told reporters in Rome Friday that his meeting with the pontiff was “very positive,” but mentioned that they did discuss the Iran war and America’s point of view.
“We had a very good meeting,” Rubio said, according to CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo. Rubio also said he expressed to Leo “the danger that Iran poses to the world.”
Donald Trump revealed Thursday evening that he had instructed Rubio to bring up the matter, apparently uninterested in settling a boiling feud between his administration and the Catholic Church.
“I just said, tell the pope very nicely, very respectfully, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “Also tell the pope that Iran killed 42,000 innocent protesters who didn’t have guns, who didn’t have weapons. Tell that to the pope.”
The Chicago-born pontiff upset the president and a number of Trump’s underlings when he advocated for world peace earlier this year. The Pentagon reportedly threatened a Holy See ambassador in January, days after the pope made antiwar remarks during his State of the World address.
Leo has brushed off Trump’s remarks, claiming that he has “no fear” of the Trump administration or of “speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel,” though the Vatican did reject a White House invitation to host the pope for America’s 250th anniversary on July 4.
Rubio’s meeting with Leo ended in an awkward gift exchange that seemingly left the pope speechless. In a not so subtle gesture, the pope gave the Trump administration representative a pen made of olive wood as a de facto olive branch, dubbing it a “plant of peace.” Rubio, in turn, gave the pope a tiny crystal football while acknowledging that the pope—a well-known Chicago White Sox fan—is more of a “baseball guy.”
The Vatican put out a statement after the meeting, referring to the talks as “cordial” but noting that “there followed an exchange of views regarding the regional and international situation, with particular attention to countries marked by war, political tensions, and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as to the need to work tirelessly in support of peace.”