Pope Leo, after Rubio meeting, asks God to inspire leaders to calm tensions

By Guglielmo Mangiapane and Joshua McElwee

POMPEI, Italy, May 8 (Reuters) – Pope Leo asked that God would inspire world leaders to calm global tensions and reduce hatred in an address on Friday to mark his first anniversary as head of the Catholic Church, a day after he met U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican. 

Leo, who has drawn the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump after criticizing the Iran war, asked worshippers to pray that global governments would turn away from violence.    

In a visit to Pompei, a modern city about 245 km (152 miles) south of Rome near the famed ruins of a volcanic eruption, the pope said he would join their prayers that God would begin “touching hearts, calming rancour and fratricidal hatreds, and enlightening those who have special responsibilities of government”.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, held talks with Rubio on Thursday in an atmosphere of tension with Washington as Trump has repeatedly disparaged the pontiff on social media.

The Vatican said afterwards that the two had pledged to improve their bilateral relations, in what insiders said was an unusual recognition of unprecedented tensions.

The U.S. embassy to the Holy See said on X after the meeting that Leo and Rubio had discussed “topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere”.

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, was elected by the world’s cardinals to succeed the late Pope Francis as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church on May 8, 2025.

Prevost, who spent decades as a missionary and a bishop in Peru before becoming pope, kept a relatively low profile in his first 10 months but has been speaking forcefully against war and despotism in recent weeks.

In his message to thousands in Pompei’s main square on Friday, the pontiff lamented that world peace is “endangered by international tensions and by an economy that prefers the arms trade to respect for human life”.

He urged people not to become accustomed to war.

“We cannot resign ourselves to the images of death that the news shows us every day,” said Leo.

(Reporting by Guglielmo Mangiapane in Pompei and Joshua McElwee in Vatican City; editing by Barbara Lewis)