Biden and Pope Francis talk for 90 minutes in a symbolic meeting for America’s second Catholic president
The engagement between the two “was very warm when the delegation arrived in the room,” an official said. “There was laughter and clear rapport between President Biden and the Pope.”
“President Biden thanked His Holiness for his advocacy for the world’s poor and those suffering from hunger, conflict, and persecution. He lauded Pope Francis’ leadership in fighting the climate crisis, as well as his advocacy to ensure the pandemic ends for everyone through vaccine sharing and an equitable global economic recovery,” the White House said in a statement.
The President’s vehicle pulled to a stop in an interior courtyard of the Vatican at noon local time, and both stepped out from their limo, which was bearing the flag of the Holy See.
They were greeted by Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, head of Papal Household, and other Vatican officials.
As he went down a receiving line shaking hands, Biden repeatedly said it was “good to be back.” At one point, he introduced himself by saying, “I’m Jill’s husband.”
Biden took part in an initial one-on-one meeting with Francis, which lasted 90 minutes, before participating in an expanded bilateral meeting with several members of the Biden administration as well as Francis and Vatican officials. The President and American officials are next participating in a meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.
Despite footage of the outdoor arrival, the visit has been clouded by severe restrictions on press coverage; independent journalists will not be allowed to see the two men meeting at all, and no live pictures of the Pope greeting Biden will be transmitted.
Biden was the 14th US president to meet with a pope at the Vatican. President Woodrow Wilson was the first to do so in 1919. A live broadcast of Biden’s meeting with the Pope has been canceled by the Vatican over the objections of journalists.
Discussions about diverging viewpoints have occurred in meetings between popes and US presidents, such as when Pope John Paul II failed to convince President George W. Bush to halt the American invasion of Iraq. But when White House press secretary Jen Psaki was pressed over whether the two men would discuss abortion and the President’s pro-choice stance, Psaki said on Wednesday that they’re focused on areas of consensus.
“There’s a great deal of agreement and overlap with the President and Pope Francis on a range of issues — poverty, combating the climate crisis, ending the Covid-19 pandemic,” Psaki said. “These are all hugely important, impactful issues that will be the centerpiece of their discussion when they meet.”
She also said Friday’s meeting “absolutely has personal significance” to Biden and that she suspected it would be “a warm meeting.”
A personal meeting
The meeting was heavy with symbolism for the nation’s second Catholic President, who attends Mass almost every week, makes the sign of the cross during his speeches and displays a photo of Francis in the Oval Office alongside frames of his wife and grandchildren.
The reason for that visit was the Third International Regenerative Medicine Conference, and — in a speech delivered with a massive bronze sculpture of the Resurrection as his backdrop — Biden made an impassioned call for developing new cures for the disease that took his son’s life.
“We had just lost my son,” Biden said at the start of his speech. “And he met with my extended family in the hangar behind where the aircraft was. And I wish every grieving parent, brother, sister, mother, father, would have the benefit of his words, his prayers, his presence. He provided us with more comfort that even he, I think, will understand.”
Typically, world leaders offer a gift to the pope at the Vatican during their visits and — given Francis’ humble approach to the papacy — the gift is not likely to be extravagant.
Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, a columnist for the Religious News Service and a former chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, told CNN that “the priority is to look for areas where they can work together with the leader who’s visiting. And if there’s problems with the country, to at least incrementally improve relations with them.”
“It’s a big difference whether you’re meeting with Joe Biden or with the head of China,” he added.
Biden’s long history meeting with popes
Biden arrives at the meeting having already met Francis on several occasions, including when he attended Francis’ installation in Rome in 2013 and when he traveled there again for the medical summit three years later.
Yet it was Francis’ visit to Washington in 2015 that drove the two men together in new ways.
During his stop in Washington, Francis and Biden were briefly neighbors when the Pope overnighted at the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See, just across Massachusetts Avenue from the vice president’s residence.
Biden accompanied Francis on many of his stops, including greeting him at the airport and sitting in the front row when he received an elaborate state welcome at the White House. Biden was sitting just behind Francis on the rostrum in the House chamber when the Pope delivered an address to Congress, he stood beside Francis during his speech to a crowd on the National Mall from the Speaker’s balcony and he saw the Pope off in Philadelphia after the private meeting with his family.
Francis clearly left an impression on Biden during that visit.
“He didn’t just speak about Beau, he spoke in detail about Beau, about who he was and about family values and about forgiveness and decency,” Biden told Stephen Colbert in December.
“I am a great admirer of His Holiness. I really am,” Biden added.
The relationship between the two men, the White House has said, “is very personal.”
Unlike his past meetings with Francis, Biden is now the president, elevating their talks to an official encounter between two heads of state. Still, it is unlikely Biden’s deep Catholic faith will not inform and guide his audience.
The tone for this anticipated dynamic between two heads of state appears to have been set since Francis’ call congratulating Biden on his presidential win last November.
At the time, the Biden-Harris transition team said in a statement that the “president-elect expressed his desire to work together on the basis of a shared belief in the dignity and equality of all humankind on issues such as caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities.”
Biden’s journey of faith
Biden has long attended mass, and it’s remained a near-weekly tradition since he’s taken office.
On the weekend of Biden’s Vatican visit, the President’s Washington, DC-based parish — Holy Trinity Catholic Church — told CNN it would deliver an intercessory prayer “that the meeting between Pope Francis and President Biden be blessed with wisdom and inspire the necessary actions to address the crisis of climate change. We pray to the Lord.”
Robert Krebs, a spokesperson for Biden’s Wilmington-based church — St. Joseph on the Brandywine — and the city’s diocese, said in a statement that “we pray that open and honest discussion between these two leaders will be productive in addressing the many challenges facing our country and world.”
Biden, who himself thought of becoming a priest after the deaths of his wife and daughter, maintains friendships and seeks guidance of several people in the spiritual community. A source familiar with the situation told CNN the President maintains a “circle of friends close to him, with whom he talks freely about his faith in spiritual matters.”
“The President speaks freely about his faith. And he speaks about it with a number of people,” the source added.
Navigating politics and faith
Biden has long found himself navigating the delicate politics that come with being a Catholic Democrat who supports abortion rights and gay marriage. Those convictions have often put him at odds with leaders in the church.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop for Washington, DC, has said he will not deny the President communion.
The communion refusal movement is driven by the extremely conservative wing of the Catholic Church, and any official statement on the matter would need to be approved by the Vatican.
Reached for comment, the conference referred CNN to the Vatican.
Biden has dismissed the effort, telling reporters over the summer it was a “private matter” that he did not believe would be successful.
Reese said he doesn’t expect the communion issue to come up during the Vatican meeting.
“With the limited time they have, they’re going to be dealing with real big foreign policy issues — world issues,” he said.
“You’re going to have a picture — Pope Francis and Joe Biden — smiling and laughing together. And it’s gonna be pretty hard for the bishops to beat up on Joe Biden, after they’ve got this smiling photo of the two of them,” Reese added.
