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VATICAN CITY — <\/span>Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to the Vatican<\/a> and Italy on a fence-mending visit after President Donald Trump\u2019s broadsides against Pope Leo XIV<\/a> and the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran have alienated those allies.<\/p>\n Rubio, a practicing Catholic, will have an audience with Leo on Thursday, which was complicated at the last minute by Trump\u2019s latest criticism of the Chicago-born pope<\/a>. Leo has pushed back, calling out Trump\u2019s misrepresentations of his views on Iran and nuclear weapons and insisting that he is merely preaching the biblical message of peace.<\/p>\n Meetings Friday with Premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani might not be much easier for America’s top diplomat, given both have strongly defended Leo against Trump\u2019s attacks and have criticized the Iran war as illegal \u2014 drawing the president’s ire<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rubio insisted this week that the visit had been in the works for a while but that \u201cobviously we had some stuff that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The tensions began when Trump lashed out at Leo on social media last month, saying the pope was soft on crime and terrorism for comments about the administration\u2019s immigration policies and deportations as well as the Iran war. Leo then said God doesn\u2019t listen to the prayers of those who wage war. <\/p>\n Later, Trump posted a social media image appearing to liken himself to Jesus Christ, which was deleted after backlash. He has refused to apologize<\/a> to Leo and has sought to explain away the post by saying he thought the image was of him as a doctor.<\/p>\n Rubio said Trump\u2019s recent criticisms of Leo were rooted in his opposition to Iran potentially obtaining a nuclear weapon, which he said could be used against millions of Catholics and other Christians.<\/p>\n Trump \u201cdoesn\u2019t understand why anybody \u2014 leave aside the pope \u2014 the president and I, for that matter, I think most people, I cannot understand why anyone would think that it\u2019s a good idea for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Rubio told reporters Tuesday at the White House.<\/p>\n Leo has never said Iran should obtain nuclear weapons and that the Catholic Church \u201cfor years has spoken out against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe mission of the church is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace. If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,\u201d Leo said late Tuesday, after Trump again accused him of being \u201cOK\u201d with Iran having a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n Leo noted that the Catholic Church has always permitted countries to act in self-defense and acknowledged the church’s \u201cjust war\u201d tradition. <\/p>\n But with the advance of the age of nuclear weapons, \u201cthe whole concept of war has to be reevaluated in terms today,” he said. \u201cAnd I always believe that it\u2019s much better to enter into dialogue than to look for arms.\u201d<\/p>\n Rubio has often been called on to tone down or explain Trump\u2019s harsh rhetoric<\/a>. Trump also has criticized Meloni and other NATO allies<\/a> for a lack of support for the Iran war, recently announcing plans to pull thousands of troops out of Germany<\/a> in the coming months.<\/p>\n Giampiero Gramaglia, former head of the ANSA news agency and its onetime Washington correspondent, said he didn\u2019t expect much to come out of Rubio’s visit for Italian or Vatican relations. He, and other Italian commentators, believe Rubio instead was looking to smooth over relations with the pope for his own political ambitions as well as the upcoming midterm congressional elections and 2028 presidential race.<\/p>\n \u201cI doubt Rubio has the role of conciliator for Trump,\u201d he told Italy’s Foreign Press Association. \u201cI have the perception that Rubio\u2019s mission is more about himself\u201d and his political ambitions as a prominent Catholic Republican.<\/p>\n The Rev. Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary in the Vatican\u2019s culture office, said Rubio\u2019s mission wasn\u2019t to \u201cconvert\u201d the pope to Trump\u2019s side. Rather, Washington \u201chas come to acknowledge \u2014 implicitly but legibly \u2014 that (Leo\u2019s) voice carries weight in the world that cannot simply be dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation created by President Trump\u2019s remarks required a high-level, direct intervention, conducted in the proper language of diplomacy: a semantic corrective to a narrative of frontal conflict with the church,\u201d he wrote in an essay this week.<\/p>\n Journalist Massimo Franco, writing in the Corriere della Sera newspaper, said the Vatican’s decision to not cancel the pope\u2019s audience with Rubio after Trump\u2019s latest broadside was evidence of its willingness to keep open dialogue.<\/p>\n But relations with the Meloni government, which is facing widespread Italian public opposition to the Iran war, are not so easily smoothed over. \u201cKeeping the alliance with the United States firm while criticizing the president is showing itself to be increasingly difficult,\u201d Franco wrote Wednesday.<\/p>\n Farian Sabahi, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Insubria who is of Iranian descent, said Meloni would be wise to more strongly condemn the war for the sake of putting Italy in a good position to rebuild Iran later. Italy is the No. 2 European Union trading partner with Iran, after Germany, working within EU sanctions.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a purely opportunistic standpoint, it would actually be advisable to condemn the Israeli-U.S. aggression precisely to give Italian companies the opportunity to do business, given that there are many other players on the international stage ready to enter the Iranian market,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rubio said topics other than the Iran war were on the agenda for the Vatican visit, including Cuba. The Holy See is particularly concerned about the Trump administration\u2019s threats of potential military action<\/a> there following its January ouster of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n Trump has said frequently that Cuba could be \u201cnext\u201d and even suggested that once the war with Iran is over, naval assets deployed in the Middle East could return to the United States by way of Cuba<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants and a longtime Cuba hawk.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gave Cuba $6 million of humanitarian aid, but obviously they won\u2019t let us distribute it,” Rubio said. \u201cWe distributed it through the church. We\u2019d like to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Lee reported from Washington.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n