By Evaristo Lara
With the aim of reducing the tension generated by the exchange of statements issued by President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, will hold a meeting with the leader of the Catholic Church in the Vatican.
The Supreme Pontiff’s comments on the war unleashed by the United States against Iran, as well as the intensification of the economic blockade against Cuba and the persecution directed at hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the United States, have caused discomfort in the Republican who governs from Washington.
And it is that Since he was appointed Pope on May 8 of last year, the Chicago-born religious has shown that he does not agree with some of Trump’s policies.
Leo XIV clarifies himself as a defender of the human dignity of immigrants and at the same time as demanding humanitarian treatment for them, he rejects the discrimination or degrading treatment that they receive mainly in the United States, as he has witnessed it.
“They are human beings and we have to treat human beings in a humane way and not treat them worse than household pets or animals. There is a very big challenge, that a country says that we cannot receive more and all this… but when people arrive they are human beings and deserve the respect that each human being has for their human dignity,” he expressed at the end of last month.
Regarding the war against Iran, he has asked to stop the escalation of war and reiterates that he will not support war, advocating dialogue.
“Force has replaced justice; the law has been replaced by the law of force,” he noted.
On this point, Trump completely disagrees and even this Wednesday he criticized the Pope again.
“It’s very simple: whether he likes it or not, Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon. He seemed to suggest that they can, and I say that they can’t, because if that happened, the entire world would become a hostage, and we are not going to allow that to happen,” he mentioned in front of a group of reporters in the Oval Office.
With this background, Marco Rubio’s mission becomes complicated, especially if Trump continues to challenge the Catholic leader as he did by publishing a video created with man-made intelligence days ago where he appears wearing a robe very similar to that of Jesus Christ.
Keep reading:
• Trump criticizes Pope Leo XIV and accuses him of endangering Catholics for his stance on the war against Iran
• Trump defends that “he has the right” to disagree with Pope Leo XIV
• Trump questions the Pope and calls the Iranian nuclear program “unacceptable”
• What is the origin of the growing tensions between Pope Leo XIV and the government of Donald Trump
