Rubio to meet Pope Leo as Trump keeps up attacks on pontiff

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday, in a potentially fraught encounter as President Donald Trump has continued a series of disparaging attacks on the Catholic leader over the Iran war.



Rubio, who also serves as Trump's national security adviser, was due to arrive at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace around 11:15 a.m. for the visit, the first between the pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year.



The closed-door meeting is expected to last about a half-hour, after which Rubio will also meet the Vatican's top diplomat, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin.



Leo, the first U.S. pope, drew Trump's ire after becoming a firm critic of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration's hardline anti-immigration policies.



The president has kept up an unprecedented series of public attacks on the pope in recent weeks, drawing a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.



On Monday, Trump falsely suggested the pope believed it was okay for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and said Leo was "endangering a lot of Catholics" by opposing the war.