“The mission of the church is to preach the gospel, to preach peace," the pope told reporters Tuesday night after leaving the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo near Rome.
“If anyone wants to criticize me for proclaiming the gospel, let them do so with the truth: the church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, there is no doubt about that,” Leo added. “I simply hope to be listened to because of the value of God’s word.”
Trump had lashed out at Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, earlier Tuesday during an interview with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“The pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon," Trump told Hewitt, "and I don’t think that’s very good."
“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people," Trump added. "But I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
The president has publicly lashed out at the Chicago native as "weak on crime" and “terrible on foreign policy” after Leo pointedly criticized the joint U.S.-Israel military strikes that started on Feb. 28, and Trump has claimed credit for his election as pope and shared an AI-generated image of depicting himself as a Christ-like figure before deleting it.
“Things have become really tense because Trump isn’t talking about the church or Vatican, but Leo," said Andrea Vreede, a Vatican correspondent for the Dutch public radio and TV network NOS. "He has made it personal. We’re back to the Middle Ages when holy Roman emperors and popes did this kind of [thing], used this kind of language.”
Rubio has sought a meeting with the pope for weeks, and Vreede said he suspects the secretary of state may have ulterior motives.
“For Leo, it’s important to have a photo moment with Rubio and then release a short statement saying they are continuing their dialogue and all want world peace,” Vreede said. “Privately, it won’t be a nice talk, it cannot be a nice talk … but Rubio needs to keep the diplomatic channels with the Vatican open as he’s thinking about himself [as a presidential candidate] in 2028.”
The correspondent also suspects Trump may have tried to undermine Rubio's strategy heading into the talks.
“He believes in rivalry, in winning," Vreede said. "Perhaps he’s trying to interfere with Rubio because Rubio is being a bit too diplomatic.”
Vreede said the Vatican had indicated there would be no papal chat on Tuesday, but those plans apparently changed after Trump made his remarks on talk radio.
“We were told yesterday that there would be no papal chat,” Vreede said. “But there was, because he thought it was necessary and it was necessary.”
The pope is set to meet with Rubio on Thursday at the Vatican in an effort to ease tensions between Leo and Trump, and Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, said a "frank" conversation was expected.
"Obviously we had some stuff that happened," Burch said.
