In meeting with Pope Leo, Rubio tries to minimize Trump's attacks

U.S. Secretarial assistant of say Marco Rubio met alexander pope lion at the vatican palace on Thursday morning, in a visit that was officially about diplomacy but in reality was about cleaning up after President Donald Trump’s latest swipes at the first American pope.

The meeting followed weeks of Trump attacks on Leo over his criticism of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Trump has accused the pope of "endangering a lot of Catholics" and has repeatedly suggested, falsely, that Leo supports Iran having nuclear weapons.

Leo rejected that this week, telling reporters outside Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, that the Catholic Church has opposed nuclear arms for years, and that its mission is to preach peace.

“I always believe it’s much better to enter into dialogue than to look for arms and to support the arms industry, which gains billions and billions of dollars each year, instead of sitting down at the table, solving our problems,” Leo told reporters.

Trump did not let the facts get in the way. Speaking on television on Wednesday, he repeated the accusation, saying, “As far as the Pope is concerned, and it's very simple. Whether I make him happy or I don't make him happy. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And he seemed to be saying that they can. And I say they cannot.”

U.S. Secretary of state meets Pope Leo at Vatican amid tensions with Trump

The president’s attacks on Leo left Rubio, a Catholic and Trump’s national security adviser, the unenviable task of insisting this was all perfectly normal diplomacy.

“It’s a trip we had planned from before, and obviously we had some stuff that happened,” Rubio told reporters before the meeting. “There’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican.”

Rubio’s list of discussion topics included religious freedom, the growth of the Catholic Church in Africa and humanitarian aid to Cuba — among the ever-diminishing areas where Washington and the Vatican still have overlapping interests.

Vatican commentator and Jesuit priest Thomas Reese said he was hard-pressed to find significant issues over which the Vatican and Trump’s administration could work together.

“Maybe religious freedom? But the Trump administration definition of religious freedom is so narrow,” said Reese.

He said the main challenge for the Vatican is that the current U.S. Administration does not seem to have a foreign policy.

The main challenge for Trump, he says, is that the Vatican is very hard to bully.

“I mean, what’s he going to do, impose tariffs? The Vatican doesn’t sell indulgences anymore. Send in the Marines? You have to go through Italy first.”

After the meeting, the State Department said Rubio and Leo discussed the Middle East and their shared commitment to peace and human dignity. It was the kind of diplomatic language designed to say little.

Reese says that in practice, only thin slivers of opportunity for co-operation remain. Rubio touted one: the U.S. Providing $6 million US ($8.2 million Cdn) in humanitarian aid for Cuba through the Church, and more if the Cuban government allowed it to be distributed.

The Rubio-Leo encounter also had a domestic political purpose.

Trump enters war of words with the Pope

U.S. Midterm elections are coming up in the fall and the White House does not want conservative Catholic voters to conclude that Trump is anti-pope, even if the president’s recent comments undermine any such reassurances.

On Friday, Rubio is set to meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – until recently, one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe. The U.S. President's attacks on Leo, however, have not gone down well in Italy, where gunning for the pope is rarely a winning strategy.

Meloni, who is at her political weakest now after recently losing a constitution referendum, called Trump’s comments unacceptable. That played well with Italians, but triggered Trump’s ire, who lashed out at Meloni over her refusal to back the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

“I’m shocked by her,” Trump told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.”

Rubio's job now is to see whether there's still enough political warmth left to win back the support of Meloni, once one of Trump’s most enthusiastic fans.

Rome correspondent

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