Rubio arrives to meet Pope Leo after Trump attacks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is visiting the Vatican for a potentially worrying encounter with Pope Leo as President Donald Trump continues a series of derogatory attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war.

Rubio’s motorcade traveled across the central Roman boulevard to the Vatican under tight security, arriving Thursday morning for the first visit between the Pope and a Trump cabinet official in almost a year.

The closed-door meeting between Leo and Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security advisor, is expected to last half an hour.

Rubio will later meet with the Vatican’s top diplomat, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Leo, the first US pope, drew Trump’s ire after harshly criticizing the US-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s strict anti-immigration policies.

The president has continued an unprecedented series of public attacks on the Pope in recent weeks, prompting a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.

On Monday, Trump falsely suggested that the Pope believed it was OK for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and said Leo was “endangering many Catholics” by opposing the war.

After the latest attack, Leo told reporters that Christians were spreading the message of peace.

The pope also firmly rejected the idea that the Catholic Church supports nuclear weapons, which it teaches are immoral.

“The mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace,” the Pope said.

“The church has been speaking out against all nuclear weapons for years, there is no doubt about that.”

Leo, who celebrated his first year leading the 1.4 billion-member church on Friday, has become more outspoken on the world stage in recent weeks.

During a four-country tour of Africa in April, he strongly condemned the course of global leadership and said the world was being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants”; He later said his comments were not directly aimed at Trump.

Rubio is Catholic, as is Vice President J.D. Vance.

The duo met Leo a year ago after attending the Pope’s inauguration.

Rubio said at a White House briefing on Tuesday that he expected to discuss Cuba and concerns about religious freedom around the world with Leo.

He arrived in Rome on Thursday morning without any press accompanying him on his plane, an unusual situation for a US secretary of state.

U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Brian Burch told reporters early Tuesday that the meeting between the pope and his cabinet official would likely be “frank.”

Rubio will visit Rome for two days and meet on Friday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who defended the Pope against Trump.