MILAN, Italy (RNS) – Amid a growing public rift between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump — arguably the two most influential American-born figures in the world — Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Vatican on Thursday seeking to highlight common ground between the Holy See and the Trump administration. Rubio’s meeting with…
(RNS) — Nearly a year after the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, two deeply sourced books offer competing portraits of the context and maneuvering behind the first U.S. pope’s election. “Popes, Dollars and Wars,” by renowned Italian journalist Massimo Franco, traces how the church in the United States, long treated in Rome as a…
(RNS) — The conflict between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV — whom many consider the two most powerful Americans — has been covered nearly incessantly in recent weeks. While this is more like a collision between two radically different forms of authority, U.S. presidents have had other clashes with popes over political and…
