Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 7, where he gifted the head of the Catholic Church a crystal football.
Rubio’s trip to Italy came as his boss, President Donald Trump, has been throwing broadsides at Leo, ripping him as “weak” on crime and nuclear weapons and accusing the first American-born pontiff of “endangering” Catholics with his opposition to the Iran war.
The secretary of state spent about two hours at the Vatican, where he spoke with the pontiff as well as the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
In a news release following the meeting, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said it “underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See.”
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio met today with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV to discuss the situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” he added.
