The US Secretary of State meets the Pope and Parolin after Trump’s attacks. The crisis in the Middle East and religious freedom were at the center of the conversation.
Sew up with the Holy See and find convergence on a geopolitical level. This was the objective of the visit carried out yesterday by Marco Rubio in the Vatican. The US Secretary of State first had a conversation with Leo XIV: conversation that a US source described as “friendly and constructive”.
In particular, according to a note from Washington Department of Statethe two discussed “the situation in the Middle East and topics of common interest in the Western Hemisphere.” «The meeting», we read again, «underlined the solid relationship between them United States and the Holy See and their common commitment to the promotion of peace and human dignity.” On this occasion, the pontiff presented the American secretary of state with an olive wood pen. “It is the plant of peace,” Leone said.
The dialogue with Cardinal Parolin and religious freedom
But that’s not all. Rubio also had a conversation with the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin. During the face-to-face meeting, again according to the US State Department, “ongoing humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere and efforts to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East were examined”.
«The conversation», continues the note, «highlighted the solid partnership between the United States and the Holy See in the promotion of religious freedom». The Holy See, for its part, described yesterday’s talks as “cordial”. «The common commitment to cultivate good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America has been renewed», reads a statement from the Vatican Press Office.
“There was then an exchange of views on the regional and international situation, with particular attention to countries marked by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as on the need to work tirelessly in favor of peace”, it continues.
Détente after Trump’s criticism and the shadow of 2028
Rubio, who is expected to have a meeting with today Giorgia Melonihe moved on delicate terrain. The main objective of the Vatican visit was to initiate a détente with the Holy See, after the recent criticisms that Donald Trump he had addressed to Leone about the war in Iran. In this context, the day before yesterday, Parolin had not ruled out that, in the future, a direct conversation could perhaps take place between the American president and the pontiff.
Furthermore, let’s not forget that, in the United States, the Catholic electorate is of crucial importance: Trump clearly won it in 2024 and needs it again in view of the Midterms of November. An electorate, the Catholic one, which could also be decisive in the 2028 elections. Furthermore, it is no mystery that both Rubio and JD Vanceboth Catholics, aim to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in two years.
Geopolitical strategy: from China to the Monroe Doctrine
A second theme then emerges, which is of a geopolitical nature. As we saw, yesterday, in the Vatican, there was talk of the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere. Without neglecting the question of religious freedom: this is an element that the conservative American world often puts on the table in reference to the controversial agreement on bishops which the Holy See signed, in 2018, with the China.
We are talking about an agreement that was already opposed by the first Trump administration and that Rubio himself, as a senator from Florida, harshly criticized. It is therefore plausible that, yesterday, the American Secretary of State hoped for a easing of relations between the Holy See and the People’s Republic. On the other hand, the Trump administration fears that the Vatican’s support with Beijing could put a spoke in the wheels of the relaunch of the Monroe Doctrine.
The current American president in fact wants to oust the Dragon from the Western Hemisphere and, above all, from Latin America: an area which is notoriously predominantly Catholic. In this sense, it is plausible to hypothesize that Washington has asked for a correction of the line historically pursued by Parolin, who was among the main architects of the agreement with Beijing.
The future of relations between the White House and the Oltretevere
Leone, who has however cooled the pro-Chinese push of some sectors of the Church, knows he must move avoiding internal rifts and maintaining a structured relationship with Washington. A relationship, the latter, which, net of the current differences on the war in Iran, could be relaunched starting from the question of religious freedom: a theme that the Pope has defended several times during his first year of pontificate.
In May 2025, he hoped, for example, for “full respect for religious freedom in every country”. Instead, it was last October, when he declared: «Rooted in the dignity of the human person, created in the image of God and endowed with reason and free will, religious freedom allows individuals and communities to seek the truth, to live it freely and to bear witness to it openly». It is therefore perhaps from here that the relaunch of relations between the Holy See and the White House could pass. And who knows, if Trump manages to close the Iranian crisis, the American president might return to playing co-op with the Pope on peace in Ukraine.
