U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio before addressing the press following a meeting of G7 foreign ministers with partner countries, prior to his departure from Le Bourget airport, in Le Bourget, near Paris, on March 27, 2026. (Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio’s meeting with Pope Leo on Thursday will include a “frank conversation” about the Trump administration policies, the US ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, said.
“Nations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is ... through fraternity and authentic dialogue,” Burch said. “I think the secretary is coming here in that spirit,” Burch told journalists. “To have a frank conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue.”
Rubio’s trip, which coincides with the first anniversary of Leo’s papacy, comes weeks after Trump lashed out at the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the unprovoked U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, widely seen to have been launched illegaly. Trump called him weak and said he was not doing a very good job as pontiff.
Leo stirred the ire of Trump after he suggested a “delusion of omnipotence” was fuelling the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and called the president’s threat to annihilate Iranian civilisation if Iran did not agree to U.S. demands to end the war and open the strait of Hormuz as “truly unacceptable.”
