By Simon Lewis and Joshua McElwee
WASHINGTON/VATICAN CITY, May 4 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome this week for potentially contentious meetings with Pope Leo and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as President Donald Trump’s war in Iran strains Washington’s relations with traditional allies.
The visit comes amid an unprecedented public rift between Washington and the Vatican, with Trump lambasting the first U.S. pope on social media after Leo criticized the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and other Trump policies. Meloni defended the Pope and her defense minister has said the war in Iran puts U.S. leadership at risk.
Rubio, Trump’s national security adviser as well as the top U.S. diplomat, will travel to Italy and the Vatican from Wednesday to Friday “to advance bilateral relations with Italy and the Vatican,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement on Monday, also suggesting that U.S. tensions with Cuba could be part of Rubio’s discussions with Leo.
“Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” Pigott said.
U.S.-VATICAN TENSIONS
The Vatican said Leo was expected to meet Rubio, one of several members of Trump’s inner circle who are practicing Catholics, at 11:30 a.m. local time on Thursday.
Leo, who marks his first year as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church on Friday, maintained a relatively low profile on the global stage in the first months of his papacy but has emerged in recent weeks as an outspoken critic of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Trump criticized Leo on social media several times in April, at one point calling the pontiff “terrible”, in attacks that drew backlash from Christians across the political spectrum.
The pope has also sharply criticized the Trump administration’s hard-line anti-immigration policies and called for dialogue between the U.S. and Catholic-majority Cuba to prevent violence.
In February, as the Trump administration ramped up a blockade of Cuba’s oil supply, Leo said he was deeply concerned about tensions between the two countries.
Cuba released 51 prisoners in March under an agreement with the Vatican, in what it called a “spirit of goodwill” as the Communist government came under increasing pressure from the United States to reform its one-party rule. The Church has also delivered humanitarian aid in Cuba on behalf of the U.S. this year.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants to the U.S., last met Leo in May 2025, alongside Vice President JD Vance, who is also a Catholic.
NATO ALLIES AT ODDS
Rubio is expected to meet Meloni and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Friday. The State Department’s Pigott said Rubio’s meetings with the Italian officials “will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment.”
The talks come as Trump has lashed out at NATO allies for what he says is insufficient support for the war in Iran. The president plans to remove 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany and has said he would “probably” consider similarly pulling troops from Spain and Italy, which have both put limits on the use of their territory by the U.S. for operations.
Meloni, who had until recently aligned herself closely with Trump, said on Monday she would oppose any move to withdraw U.S. troops from Italy.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis, in Washington and Joshua McElwee in Vatican City; additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Guiseppe Fonte and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Deepa Babington)
