Biden meets with Pope Francis as communion controversy looms

The topic of Communion came up during the 90 minute meeting between President Joe Biden and Pope Francis Friday. The meeting’s length was more than double the normal length of time for an audience with the pontiff.

“In his audience with Pope Francis today, President Biden thanked His Holiness for his advocacy for the world’s poor and those suffering from hunger, conflict, and persecution,” the White House said in a statement. “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 meeting with Pope Francis and Biden comes as a growing number of conservative Catholic bishops say people who support abortion rights shouldn’t be able to take communion.  The president, who goes to weekly mass, has said he is personally opposed to abortion but cannot impose his views as an elected leader. Biden said abortion did not come up in the meeting.

“We just talked about the fact he was happy that I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving communion,” Biden said.

Following the meeting with Pope Francis, Biden met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin.

“The leaders discussed efforts to rally global support for vaccinating the developing world against COVID-19. President Biden thanked the Vatican for speaking out on behalf of the wrongfully detained, including in Venezuela and Cuba,” the White House said in a different statement. “The leaders committed to continue using their voices to advocate for personal and religious freedoms world-wide.”

The meetings kicked off a busy week for the president. He met separately with Group of 20 summit hosts Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Biden ended his day by meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. That meeting is part of an effort to mend relations with France after the U.S. and U.K. decided to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, nullifying an existing French contract.

“I think what happened was, to use an English phrase, what we did was clumsy. It was not done with a lot of grace,” Biden told Macron. “I was under the impression certain things had happened that hadn’t happened, but I want to make it clear that France is an extremely, extremely valued partner.”