Rubio plans to visit the Vatican this week as tensions between Trump and the pope rise

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Rome and Vatican City this week in a bid to ease rising tensions between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV over U.S. policies, particularly the Iran war.

The State Department said Monday that Rubio, a Catholic who with this trip will have visited Italy or the Vatican at least three times as the Republican president’s top diplomat, would be in Italy on Thursday and Friday. The Vatican announced that Rubio would meet with Leo, the first American pontiff, on Thursday.