(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV met with David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, in a private audience on Thursday.

The Vatican confirmed the meeting with Axelrod and his “entourage,” but details about what was discussed have not been made public. Pope Leo was allegedly 30 minutes late to another meeting because his audience with Axelrod overran.

The meeting came in the wake of reports that in January the Trump administration demanded the Vatican “take its side” on the world stage because the U.S. military can “do whatever it wants.” It is not immediately clear if the two events are connected. New statements from U.S. officials suggested that details of the report were exaggerated or even fabricated.

News of the Axelrod meeting has raised questions and caused consternation among faithful Catholics. Axelrod, a Democrat who advised President Obama in the White House from 2009 to 2011, is one of the most prominent left-wing strategists in the U.S.

The Obama administration notably strongly promoted abortion, the normalization of homosexuality and gender confusion, and other offenses against fundamental Catholic teaching.

It is being speculated that the Axelrod meeting could have been preparation for Pope Leo to eventually meet Obama himself.

Last month, Christopher Hale, a pro-LGBT Catholic-identifying Democrat who describes himself as a “political operative,” claimed on his “Letters from Leo” Substack that “the Holy See and Obama’s entourage have been in talks about making (a) meeting happen.”

The 44th president stated in a February podcast that he would like to meet Pope Leo: “The person who I have not yet met that I’m looking forward to meeting — and I hope I get an opportunity sometime in the future — is the new pope, who’s from Chicago, and a White Sox fan.”

Pope Leo was born and raised in the Chicago area, while Obama moved to the city in the 1980s to build his political career. Axelrod has been a longtime Chicago resident as well.

This is a developing story …