U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to travel to Rome and the Vatican this week, Italian government sources said Sunday, in a visit seen as an effort to ease tensions following President Donald Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV.
Italian media reported that Rubio would meet the U.S. pontiff himself on Thursday, but there was no immediate confirmation of this.
Newspapers presented the visit by Rubio, a Catholic, as a meeting to "thaw" relations.
The government source told AFP that Rubio would meet Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
The meetings come just weeks after Trump's extraordinary criticism of Pope Leo over the Catholic leader's anti-war rhetoric.
