ROME – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Thursday at the Vatican to meet with top Holy See officials, a day after tensions over American opposition to the Vatican’s China policy spilled out in public.Pompeo was meeting with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
The Vatican declined his request to see Pope Francis, citing Holy See policy to not grant papal audiences during election campaigns, Parolin said.Pompeo was in Rome to participate in a conference on religious freedom organized by the U.S.
Embassy to the Holy See, and to meet with Italian and Vatican officials. During the Wednesday conference, Pompeo urged the Vatican to join the U.S.