Democrat Joe Biden has accepted the invitation to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican to talk about world peace next January, days before his term as president of the United States ends.
According to a statement of the White House, both had a telephone conversation on December 19, in which the Democratic leader thanked the Holy Father “for his continued commitment to alleviating global suffering, including his work to promote human rights and protect religious freedoms.”
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Biden is scheduled to travel to Rome from January 9 to 12 and the audience with Pope Francis has been scheduled for the 10th. His successor, Donald Trump, will be sworn in as the new president of the United States on the 20th of the same month.
The death penalty is also expected to be one of the central topics of the meeting. Pope Francis has urged its abolition on repeated occasions, promoting in 2018 the modification of article 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty, declaring the application of this sentence “inadmissible” in any case. The United States is one of the few developed countries where it still applies.
Joe Biden’s “inconsistency” in favor of abortion
In July 2022, Pope Francis described it as “inconsistency” that Joe Biden, the second Catholic president in the history of the United States, is in favor of legal abortion.
During a interview With Univision and Televisa, the Pontiff spoke about abortion and Biden’s position, after being asked about whether or not to offer Holy Communion to politicians who promote the murder of the unborn. “Let (Biden) talk to his pastor about that inconsistency,” Pope Francis said.
The last meeting between the two took place in June of this year, within the framework of the G7 summit, where they spoke about foreign policy and climate change. Furthermore, on that occasion they emphasized “the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and a hostage agreement” in Gaza.
In October 2023 they also spoke by phone about the conflict in the Holy Land, after the attacks by the Hamas terrorist group on October 7 of that year. His first meeting as president-elect took place on October 29, 2021.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
I am a graduate in Journalism and Advertising from the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. I have been a senior correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in the Vatican for two years and I am currently a European correspondent based in Spain.