US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived at the Vatican to meet Pope Leo XIV in what is seen as an attempt to repair relations after President Donald Trump’s repeated barbs against the pontiff.
The closed-door meeting is expected to take about half an hour on Thursday, and then Rubio will meet his counterpart, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
- list 1 of 4The pope has shown the world how to stand up to Trump
- list 2 of 4Pope Leo says not seeking ‘new debate’ with Trump on trip to Angola
- list 3 of 4On World Press Freedom Day, Pope honours journalists killed in war zones
- list 4 of 4Rubio defends Trump remarks on Pope Leo amid Iran war
end of list
This is the first known meeting between the pope and a Trump government official in nearly a year. Parolin said the meeting was requested by the US and Leo would listen carefully to what Rubio had to say.
“I imagine they’ll talk about everything that has happened in recent days,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Relations between Trump and Pope Leo have deteriorated sharply, driven by a barrage of public attacks from the US leader after the pontiff became a vocal critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran, drawing backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.
The most recent attack from Trump came on Monday, when he accused the pope of “endangering a lot of Catholics” by opposing the war, and falsely suggested the pontiff believed it was okay for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.
Pope Leo denied that he supported nuclear weapons, which the Catholic Church teaches are immoral.
“The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace,” said the pope. “The Church has spoken out for years against all nuclear arms, on that there is no doubt.”
The US ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch told journalists on Tuesday that the conversation between Leo and Rubio was likely to be “frank”.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, Parolin described Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo as “strange”, in comments cited by the Reuters news agency. “I wouldn’t want to get into judgments or personal evaluations about this,” the cardinal told journalists outside an event near the Vatican.
Rubio is also set to meet Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, who has defended the pope against Trump’s attacks.
Pope Leo has grown increasingly outspoken on the world stage in recent weeks. During a four-country trip to Africa, he declared the world was being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” – comments he later said were not directed at Trump.
On Friday, Pope Leo, who became the first American pontiff, will mark his first year leading the 1.4-billion-member Church.
Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera wp:paragraph
هلدینگ کاسپین استانبول | خرید ملک در ترکیه | صرافی معتبر ایرانی در ترکیه | خرید و فروش طلا در ترکیه | مهاجرت به ترکیه | واردات و صادرات در ترکیه | نیازمندیهای ترکیه | اخبار ترکیه | اخبار جهانی | توریست ایران | خدمات توریستی در ایران | تورهای گردشگری ایران | هلدینگ اول | خدمات کاریابی و فریلنسری و شغل | مرجع اطلاعات ایران (همه چیز در ایران) | کیف پول و خدمات مالی و پرداخت یار | اخبار ایران | تابلو زنده قیمت ارز در ترکیه و استانبول | صرافی آنلاین ترکیه | قیمت طلا و نقره در ترکیه | سرمایه گذاری در ترکیه | جواهرات در ترکیه | نرخ لحظه ای ارزها در استانبول | قیمت دلار امروز در ترکیه | قیمت دلار استانبول امروز | قیمت لحظه ای دلار | اخبار روز ترکیه استانبول | اپلیکیشن ISTEX | اپلیکیشن قیمت لحظه ای دلار و یورو و لیر و ارزها در ترکیه
About the Author
