Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY, May 8 (Reuters) – After Pope Leo met with U.S. Secretary of State Rubio, the Vatican issued a statement saying the two pledged to improve bilateral relations, an acknowledgment of unprecedented tensions, insiders and analysts said.
Rubio’s meeting Thursday with Leo, America’s first pope, drew widespread public attention as President Donald Trump repeatedly attacked the pope over the Iran war.
The two leaders “reaffirmed their shared commitment to promoting good bilateral relations,” a Vatican statement said after the 45-minute meeting, the first meeting between a pope and Trump cabinet officials in nearly a year.
“The statement made it clear that there is work to be done,” Peter Martin, a former diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in the Holy See who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, told Reuters.
On Friday, reporters asked Rubio if he would advise Trump to stop attacking the pope after meeting Leo.
“The president has always been clear about his views on the United States and U.S. policy,” the cabinet secretary responded. “I think we can do that and continue to have a very productive … relationship with the church.”
Breaking the tradition of “everything is fine”
Vatican expert Austen Ivereigh, who co-authored a book with the late Pope Francis, said the focus of the Vatican statement on the need for bilateral ties showed that “bilateral relations are not good at the moment.”
The U.S. Embassy in Rome said after the meeting that Leo and Rubio discussed “topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere.”
“The partnership between the United States and the Holy See in advancing religious freedom is very strong,” Rubio said on X, referring to his meeting with top Vatican officials at the Vatican on Thursday.
The Vatican’s statement covered the Leo-Rubio meeting and the secretary of state’s subsequent meeting at the Vatican, but made no mention of either the Western Hemisphere or religious freedom.
The statement said the two sides “exchanged views” on the world situation, but did not give any areas of common agreement other than building better bilateral relations.
Kenneth Hackett, who led the U.S. Catholic Church’s external aid agency for 18 years before serving as nuncio to the Holy See under former President Barack Obama, said the Vatican’s statement showed “no substantial agreement was reached.”
In Vatican diplomacy, ‘every word counts’
It is unusual for the Vatican to say it does not have good relations with foreign countries.
After Leo met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier on Thursday, the Vatican said its diplomats “expressed satisfaction with the good relations between Poland and the Vatican” during their meeting with Tusk.
Martin, who worked at the U.S. Embassy during Trump’s 2017 visit to the Vatican with the late Pope Francis, noted that the Vatican’s release after that meeting used the same language to “express satisfaction with the good relationship between the United States and the Vatican.”
“In diplomacy, especially Vatican diplomacy, every word counts,” said Martin, who now teaches at Boston College in Massachusetts.
Leo drew Trump’s ire for criticizing the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and the Trump administration’s hard-line anti-immigration policies.
Trump has launched a series of unprecedented public attacks on the pope in recent weeks, prompting a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.
Trump and Leo, who became pope a year ago, have never met.
The Vatican’s statement on Thursday was also unusual in revealing what was discussed during the pope’s meeting with Rubio.
Such press releases are often carefully scripted to reveal only the topics discussed during the visiting official’s meeting with the Vatican’s top diplomat, not during his or her papal encounter.
Ivey said the Vatican had to issue a statement given the intense media interest and “any spin expected from the White House.”
The last time the Vatican revealed such details of a papal meeting in a statement was after Leo met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in September, when a press release said the pope raised “the tragic situation in Gaza” with Herzog.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington; Editing by Barbara Lewis)
