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Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States, arrived at the Vatican this Wednesday to meet with Pope Leo XIV in the private library of the Apostolic Palace, during a visit aimed at rebuilding diplomatic ties between Washington and the Holy See following weeks of open tension between the pontiff and President Donald Trump.
The audience, confirmed by the Vatican Press Office, will take place this Thursday.
This is the second meeting between the two. The first took place on May 19, 2025, a day after the inaugural mass of the papacy, when Rubio attended with Vice President JD Vance.
The State Department spokesperson, Thomas Pigott, indicated that Rubio would meet with the leadership of the Holy See to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere, with particular focus on Cuba.
In a press conference at the White House last Tuesday, Rubio revealed that he wants to discuss with the Pope the distribution of humanitarian aid in Cuba through the Catholic Church, noting that the Díaz-Canel regime hinders that distribution.
"We are willing to provide more humanitarian aid to Cuba, but the Cuban regime must allow us to do so," stated the Secretary of State.
The United States has already sent 6 million dollars in February 2026 through Cáritas Cuba, and there are 9 million additional dollars designated for victims of Hurricane Melissa in the eastern part of the island, funds that Washington also wants to channel through ecclesiastical means.
The Vatican has a history as a mediator between Washington and Havana: it facilitated the rapprochement between Obama and Raúl Castro from 2014 to 2016, and under Biden, it contributed to the release of 553 Cuban prisoners.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, stated in March that the Holy See has taken "the necessary steps to promote a negotiated solution in Cuba."
The visit occurs in a context of unprecedented tension between Trump and Pope Leo XIV.
The conflict erupted on April 7, when the pontiff described the president's threat to destroy "an entire Iranian civilization" as "truly unacceptable." Trump responded on social media by calling the Pope "weak on crime" and "terrible in foreign policy," even going so far as to write: "If I were not in the White House, León would not be in the Vatican."
The Pope responded from the papal plane: "I have no fear of the Trump administration," and days later stated that he had no interest in debating the president. However, Trump struck back against the pontiff again this week, accusing him of "endangering many Catholics" due to his stance on Iran.
Tensions spread to Italy as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defended the Pope, and Trump deemed her remarks "unacceptable," threatening to withdraw U.S. troops from Italy, Spain, and Germany. Rubio will meet with Meloni on Friday before returning to Washington.
The person responsible for redefining the relationship with the Holy See is Rubio, not Vance—the highest-ranking Catholic figure in the administration—who also criticized the Pope by saying that he should focus on theology rather than politics.
León XIV also has personal ties to Cuba: his maternal ancestry traces back to 18th century Havana, and he visited the island in 2008, 2011, and 2019 as the superior general of the Augustinians.
The Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni summarized the spirit of the meeting: "His Holiness hopes for honest exchanges on the promotion of peace and human rights."
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