“US confirms Pope Leo to meet US secretary of state The United States confirmed on Monday that the Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to visit Rome to meet with Pope Leo XIV on Thursday. “Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere,” the State Department said. Sources told AFP that Rubio would also be meeting with Italian officials, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday that she would likely meet with the US secretary of state during his visit. This comes after US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the American-born Pope who he called “terrible for foreign policy” after Leo called for peace and spoke out against Trump’s actions in the Middle East. Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd from a window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square during the Regina Coeli prayer in the Vatican on 3 May 2026 (Tiziana Fabi/AFP)
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