Vatican’s careful words on Pope-Rubio meeting imply deep Trump tensions
By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY, May 8 (Reuters) – The Vatican’s statement promising to improve bilateral relations after Pope Leo’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was an acknowledgment of unprecedented tensions, insiders and analysts said.
Rubio’s meeting with Leo, the first US pope, on Thursday attracted public attention as President Donald Trump repeatedly attacked the pope over the Iran war.
Following the 45-minute meeting, which was the first meeting between the Pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year, the Vatican said in a statement that the two leaders “renewed their common determination to develop good bilateral relations.”
“(This) statement makes clear that there is work to be done right now,” Peter Martin, a former diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in the Vatican who served under Democratic and Republican administrations, told Reuters. he said.
On Friday, reporters asked Rubio if he would advise Trump to stop attacking the pope after his meeting with Leo.
“The president will always talk openly about how he feels about the United States and U.S. policy,” the cabinet secretary said. “I think we can do that and continue to have a very productive relationship with the church.”
BREAK FROM THE TRADITION OF SAYING EVERYTHING IS GOOD
Vatican expert Austen Ivereigh, who wrote a book with the late Pope Francis, said the Vatican statement’s focus on the need to establish bilateral relations showed “they are not good right now.”
Following the meeting, the US embassy in the Vatican said in X that Leo and Rubio discussed “areas of common interest in the Western Hemisphere.”
“The United States and the Vatican’s partnership in advancing religious freedom is strong,” Rubio told X, referring to his meetings with senior Vatican officials at the Vatican on Thursday.
The Vatican statement included both the Leo-Rubio encounter and the secretary’s subsequent Vatican meetings, but made no mention of either the Western Hemisphere or religious freedom.
The declaration stated that there was an “exchange of views” regarding the state of the world, and did not specify any area of common agreement other than improving bilateral relations.
Kenneth Hackett, who ran the US Catholic Church’s foreign aid agency for 18 years before serving as Vatican Ambassador under former President Barack Obama, said the Vatican statement showed “there is no substantive agreement”.
‘EVERY WORD IS IMPORTANT’ IN VATICAN DIPLOMACY
It is unusual for the Vatican to claim that it does not have good relations with a foreign country.
Following a previous meeting between Leo and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Thursday, the Vatican said its diplomatic officials “expressed satisfaction with the good relations” between Poland and the Vatican in their meeting with Tusk.
Martin, who worked at the US embassy during Trump’s visit to the Vatican with the late Pope Francis in 2017, noted that the Vatican’s release after this encounter “expressed ‘satisfaction with the good relations’ between the US and the Vatican” in the same words.
“In the world of diplomacy — especially Vatican diplomacy — every word counts,” said Martin, who now teaches at Boston College in Massachusetts.
Leo drew Trump’s ire after criticizing the US-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s strict anti-immigration policies.
Trump has continued an unprecedented series of public attacks on the pope in recent weeks, prompting a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.
Trump and Leo, who became pope a year ago, have never met.
The Vatican’s statement on Thursday was also unusual in revealing the content of the discussions during the pope’s meeting with Rubio.
Such publications are often carefully written to reveal issues discussed in a visiting official’s meetings with senior Vatican diplomats, rather than during a papal encounter.
Ivereigh said the Vatican had to issue a statement because of “the intense media attention and any expectation of reversal in the White House.”
The last time such details of a papal meeting emerged from the Vatican was in September, after Leo met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog; In a statement, the pope was said to have raised the “tragic situation in Gaza” with Herzog.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington; Editing by Barbara Lewis)
