The United States confirmed Monday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Rome this week, saying he will discuss the Middle East in the wake of President Donald Trump's criticism of Pope Leo XIV.
The Vatican earlier announced that Rubio would meet privately with the pontiff on Thursday, with an Italian source telling AFP he would also see Italian officials and had sought a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
In a brief statement, the State Department confirmed that Rubio would travel to Rome from Wednesday through Friday.
"Secretary Rubio will meet with Holy See leadership to discuss the situation in the Middle East and mutual interests in the Western Hemisphere," the State Department said.
"Meetings with Italian counterparts will be focused on shared security interests and strategic alignment."
The visit by Rubio, a devout Catholic who regularly attends Mass, comes after Trump stunned many observers by attacking Pope Leo, the first American-born pontiff.
Trump called the pope "WEAK on crime, and terrible for foreign policy" after Leo called for peace and said that Trump's genocidal call to destroy Iranian civilization was unacceptable.
The pope has also spoken out against Trump's sweeping crackdown on immigration.
The Vatican has long played an active role in diplomacy on Cuba, where Rubio, a Cuban-American, has been leading the Trump administration's efforts to pile pressure on the communist government.
Even before Trump's attacks on the pope, polls conducted in March and April showed that growing disapproval of Trump among American Catholics, a warning sign after he won a majority of Catholic voters in the 2024 election.