US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left the Vatican on Thursday after seeing Pope Leo in what was expected to be a heated meeting following President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the Catholic Church leader over the Iran war.
Rubio spent 2-1/2 hours in the Vatican before driving in a motorcade under heavy security. He first met with Leo before sitting down with senior Vatican officials, including Italy’s top diplomat Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
The Vatican and the US State Department did not provide any immediate details about the meetings.
Rubio’s meeting with Leo, the first between the pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year, turned out to be longer than planned. The Pope arrived 40 minutes late for the next appointment with the Vatican staff and thanked them for their patience.
Vatican photos of the meeting showed Leo and Rubio shaking hands before sitting together at the pope’s official desk in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.
Leo, the first US pope, angered Trump after being a vocal critic of the US-Israel war against Iran and the Trump administration’s harsh anti-immigration policies.
