Top Vatican cardinal calls Trump's attacks on Pope Leo 'strange'

By Joshua McElwee

ROME, May 6 (Reuters) - A senior Vatican cardinal on Wednesday called U.S. President Donald Trump's disparaging attacks on Pope Leo over the Iran war "strange," a day before the U.S. Secretary of State is due to hold talks with the pope.

Asked how he evaluated the attacks by Trump of Leo, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin responded: "For me it seems a bit strange, to say the least."

"I wouldn't want to get into judgments or personal evaluations about this," the cardinal told journalists outside an event near the Vatican.

Leo, who will welcome U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Vatican for a meeting on Thursday, drew Trump's ire after becoming a firm critic of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration's hardline anti-immigration policies.

The president has kept up an unprecedented series of public attacks on the pope in recent weeks, drawing a backlash from Christian leaders across the political spectrum.

The U.S. ambassador to the Holy See told journalists on Tuesday that the conversation between Leo and Rubio, the first known meeting between the pope and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year, was likely to be "frank".

Parolin said on Wednesday the meeting was requested by the U.S. He said Leo would listen carefully to what Rubio had to say.

"I imagine they'll talk about everything that has happened in recent days," said the cardinal.

On Monday, Trump falsely suggested the pope believed it was okay for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and said Leo was "endangering a lot of Catholics" by opposing the war.

Leo told journalists after the latest attack that he was spreading the Christian message of peace. The pope also firmly rejected the idea that he supported nuclear weapons, which the Catholic Church teaches are ​immoral.

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Alvise Armellini and Deepa Babington)