U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is slated to travel to Italy this week for a highly anticipated meeting with Pope Leo, a Vatican source confirmed on Sunday.

This encounter marks the first known in-person meeting between the pontiff and a U.S. cabinet official in nearly a year, occurring amidst President Donald Trump’s public criticisms of the Catholic leader .

The meeting, expected to take place on Thursday, comes as Pope Leo has emerged as a vocal critic of the U.S.-Israeli-led war with Iran, following earlier condemnations of the Trump administration’s stringent anti-immigration policies.

President Trump, in turn, sharply criticized Leo on social media multiple times in April, at one point labeling the pontiff "terrible" during Leo's four-nation Africa tour.

Trump defended an earlier AI-generated image depicting him as Jesus Christ saying he thought it was ‘a picture of me being a doctor.’ The image was later deleted from his Truth Social account (AFP/Getty)

Rubio last met Pope Leo, the first U.S.…