Pope Leo receives Rubio. The Vatican: working tirelessly for peace

Exchange of gifts and soothing messages. It was the talk of Vatican-US rapprochement that between the Pope and Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State received in private audience at the Vatican. An appointment that came after the serious tensions caused by Donald Trump's attacks on the American pontiff.

Prevost gave Rubio an olive wood pen: 'It is the plant of peace,' stressed Leo XIV, also showing his coat of arms at one end. Rubio presented the Pope with a small crystal football.

The meeting was 'friendly and constructive', US sources said. The Holy See spoke of "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 the need to work tirelessly in favour of peace". At the meeting, it is emphasised, 'the common commitment to cultivate good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America was renewed'.

Face-to-face with Meloni

After the meeting with the Pontiff, Rubio will meet with the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, who yesterday stressed that 'the United States is and remains an indispensable interlocutor of the Holy See'. They will talk about various dossiers, Latin America, the Cuba issue, Lebanon, Gaza. On Friday, Rubio will instead meet the Italian premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Defence Minister Guido Crosetto. Yesterday the French bishops announced a possible trip of Pope Leo to their country at the end of September.