The Vatican has said it raised the “need to work tirelessly in favour of peace” in talks with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is in Rome on a trip widely regarded as an effort to ease tensions after Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of Pope Leo.

Amid unprecedented strain on relations between the Holy See and Washington, Rubio was received by the pope on Thursday at the Apostolic Palace, before holding a series of meetings with Vatican officials

Vatican video showed the first north American pope shaking hands with his guest and addressing him formally as “Mr Secretary”, to which Rubio, a Catholic, responded: “Great to see you.”

Rubio ​was seen giving the pope a small crystal American football. He joked that he knew Leo – originally from Chicago and known as a fan of the White Sox – ‌was more ⁠of a “baseball guy”.

After his 45-minute papal audience, Rubio also met the Vatican secretary of state and de facto chief diplomat, Pietro Parolin, who on the eve of his visit had strongly defended Leo and criticised Trump’s recent attacks as “rather strange”.

In a statement, the Vatican said the two sides had exchanged views on current events “with particular attention to countries marked by war, political tensions, and difficult humanitarian situations, as well as on the need to work tirelessly in favour of peace”.

A US official briefed reporters that the conversations were “friendly and constructive”. A spokesperson for the US state department said Rubio met Leo “to discuss the situation in the Middle East and issues of mutual interest in the western hemisphere”.

“The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See, as well as their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he added.

It was unclear to what extent the meetings would help patch up the ties between Washington DC and the Vatican.

On Tuesday, Trump launched a fresh verbal attack on the pope, accusing him of supporting nuclear weapons and “endangering a lot of Catholics” with his stance against the Iran war.

On Wednesday, Leo responded: “If anyone wants to criticise me for proclaiming the gospel, let them do so with the truth: the church has spoken out against all nuclear weapons for years, there is no doubt about that. I simply hope to be listened to because of the value of God’s word.”

Relations between the Vatican and Washington have never been so fraught. In April, the US president lashed out at Leo over the pope’s criticism of the war in Iran, calling him “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy”, and claiming he had only been elected pontiff because Trump himself occupied the White House. Trump later shared – before deleting – an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure.

Rubio’s meeting appeared aimed at trying to smooth over Trump’s insults and repair the increasingly damaged ties between the US and the Vatican. According to several analysts, the secretary of state was expected to have defended Washington’s rationale for launching the war in Iran, while carefully avoiding a direct clash with the church’s position.

Asked whether he placed greater trust in Rubio or Trump, Parolin told reporters on Tuesday: “I count on no one. I count only on our Lord Jesus Christ.” He added that Trump attacking Leo “in this way, or reproaching him for what he does, seems rather strange, to say the least”.

Rubio will meet the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, on Friday as relations between Rome and Washington have also deteriorated.

Lorenzo Castellani, a political historian at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome, said Trump’s attacks on the pope, which have provoked widespread outrage in Italy where the papacy plays a crucial role in the political and cultural imagination, “has effectively forced Meloni to distance herself from the US president”, despite, earlier this year, saying she hoped Trump would one day receive the Nobel peace prize.

According to some Italian newspapers, Rubio’s goal in talks with Italy will not necessarily be to mend relations, but rather to reassert Trump’s position after the US president lashed out at Meloni in April, accusing her of lacking courage for refusing to join the US campaign against Iran.

According to Castellani, Meloni’s shift from being a staunch Trump ally to adopting a more critical stance towards the US president is driven by political and electoral considerations.

“For the first time since the second world war, foreign policy has become a central concern for Italian public opinion,” Castellani said. “This shift had already begun with the war in Ukraine, but the current crisis represents a decisive escalation. The reason is simple: this is a conflict with direct geopolitical and economic consequences for Italy and for Europe as a whole.”

He added: “For this reason, Meloni can no longer maintain a clear separation between foreign and domestic policy. In the past, she has taken positions that ran counter to segments of her own electorate. But now, recent polling suggests that across both the right and the left there is broad agreement in condemning the position of Trump. The same sentiments now cut across a vast portion of the electorate – arguably as much as 80 to 90%.”

Also expected to feature prominently in the talks is the future of the roughly 13,000 US military personnel stationed across seven naval bases in Italy.

Asked last week whether he would consider pulling US troops out of Italy, Trump told reporters: “Probably … Italy has not been of any help to us.”