The Vatican did Secretary of State Marco Rubio no favors with its response to his meeting with Pope Leo XIV on Thursday amid deep tensions between the Catholic leader and his boss, President Donald Trump.
It offered a terse statement, describing the summit as an “exchange of views” about countries caught up in war and the pursuit of peace.
After the summit on Thursday morning, it was also revealed that the pope was not subtle in his choice of gift for Rubio.
The secretary of state gifted Pope Leo, who is from Chicago, a crystal football bearing the State Department seal, while the pontiff gave Rubio a pen made from olive wood. He noted that an olive branch is the symbol of peace.
Rubio flew to Rome for meetings at the Vatican and with other Italian leaders, as the president has repeatedly gone after the pontiff for criticizing his war in Iran.
The Vatican put out a statement describing the talks as “cordial” and insisted the “shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America was reaffirmed.” But the niceties stopped there.
“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,” the Vatican added.
It was a short response after the president accused the pope of endangering Catholics in an interview on Monday, the latest in a series of attacks by Trump.
The president has repeatedly claimed that Pope Leo is okay with Iran having a nuclear weapon, which is not the case.
The first American-born pope has repeatedly called for peace through diplomacy and spoken out against nuclear armament around the globe.
But Trump took it personally, first attacking the Pope last month as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” in a post where he also took credit for Pope Leo even being named leader of the Catholic church.
But that has not stopped the pope from speaking out against war despite the president’s tantrums.
Trump went after the pope in an interview on Monday, when he said: “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.”
“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics, and a lot of people, but I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump continued.
The pope publicly fired back indirectly at the president’s repeated claims about his stance on nuclear capabilities.
“I have already spoken from the first moment, ‘Peace be with you.’ The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If anyone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so truthfully.
“The Church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, so there is no doubt about that,” he added.
In his own post about the meeting, Rubio wrote that he met with Pope Leo “to underscore our shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity.”
During the visit, Rubio also met with Pietro Parolin, the Cardinal Secretary of State for the Vatican, who oversees the church’s foreign policy.
