Marco Rubio’s meeting with Pope Leo was as awkward as one might expect

On the eve of his one-year anniversary as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV received Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican. The meeting was not the result of an invitation extended by the pope, but followed a request made by the United States. In an exchange of gifts after the meeting, the Catholic Rubio gifted the first U.S.-born pope with a glass football etched with the logo of the secretary of state. Pope Leo reciprocated by giving the Rubio a pen of cedarwood, which is a symbol of peace.

Pope Leo’s response to what amounted to a glass football paperweight from Rubio? “Wow. OK.”

A glass football isn’t the most thoughtful gift for a native Chicagoan who is a fan of baseball’s White Sox.

I’m sure Rubio got the hint. A glass football isn’t the most thoughtful gift for a native Chicagoan who is such a fan of baseball’s White Sox that he even wore the team’s black cap with white lettering at the Vatican. But Rubio’s gift is emblematic of the fragile, fumbling relationship President Donald Trump and his administration have with Pope Leo and the Holy See.

The Holy See put out a brief communique about the meeting with Rubio, stating that “cordial talks renewed the shared commitment to fostering sound bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America.”

According to Christopher Hale, publisher of Letters From Leo, this is the Vatican’s polite way of saying we agree to disagree.

Rubio’s visit came on the heels of derogatory remarks about the pope from Trump, who continues to tell the lie that Pope Leo wants Iran to have nuclear weapons. In an interview with Hugh Hewitt, Trump made the claim that Pope Leo is “endangering Catholics and a lot of people.” Trump made that remark after he’d already made several wildly inaccurate and defamatory statements about the pope.

Trump criticizing the pope before the secretary of state meets with him illustrates how desperate he is to show his shrinking base he’s still a fighter. The president is using Pope Leo as a foil to try to bolster his specious claim that he started the war in Iran war to keep the country from obtaining from a nuclear weapon.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who serves as the Vatican’s secretary of state, said before the meeting between Rubio and the pope that Trump’s decision to repeatedly attack the pontiff “seems a bit strange to me.”