When the pope met the president: Francis' meetings with Obama, Biden and Trump

USA Today

23-04-2025

When the pope met the president: Francis' meetings with Obama, Biden and Trump
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Pope Francis' relations with three US presidents: Obama, Trump, Biden
During the dozen years that Pope Francis served as the pontiff, he met each of the three men who served as the U.S. president during his papacy.
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama was moved by Pope Francis' moral perspective on world problems. Donald Trump said the pontiff made him more determined than ever to pursue peace. And Joe Biden said Francis was happy he was a good Catholic.
There was a time when the idea of a president meeting with a pope would have been unthinkable. Anti-immigrant sentiments in the 19th century focused on Catholics, with popes portrayed as manipulative leaders of a mysterious fringe religion. But times change. So do popes and presidents.
By the time Francis took over as leader of the Catholic Church in 2013, meetings between the president and the pontiff had become commonplace. During the dozen years that he served as the pontiff, Francis, who died April 21, met each of the three men who served as the U.S. president during his papacy.
The pope's confabs with the American leaders took place at the Vatican and in Washington and included presidents from both political parties.
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Francis had been pope just a little over a year when he met with Obama for the first time in Rome in March 2014.
The two leaders didn't see eye to eye on some issues. The church opposed same-sex marriage, which Obama supported. And the Vatican objected to the Affordable Care Act's mandate that Catholic hospitals and institutions provide health plans that cover contraceptive drugs and abortion-inducing medications, such as morning-after pills, which the church opposed on moral grounds.
But Obama said those issues didn't come up during his meeting with Francis that came about midway through his second term in the White House.
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They talked instead about international conflict, human rights and religious freedom and 'the responsibilities that we all share to care for the least of these, the poor, the excluded," Obama said.
"I was extremely moved by his insights about the importance of us all having a moral perspective on world problems and not simply thinking in terms of our own narrow self-interests,' Obama added.
Obama invited the pope to visit the United States. The next year, he did.
On Sept. 22, 2015, Pope Francis' gleaming white Alitalia plane – colloquially known as "Shepherd One" – touched down at Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington as the pontiff began a historic six-day, three-city visit.
It was the first time Francis had set foot on American soil. The Spanish-speaking pope arrived in the United States via Cuba, where he had met with Fidel Castro in what the Vatican described as an 'informal and friendly' encounter.
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In Washington, Francis waved to cheering crowds, embraced children and basked in the pageantry of an official arrival ceremony on the White House South Lawn. Standing alongside Obama before a crowd of politicians, luminaries and ordinary citizens, Francis endorsed Obama's efforts to cut air pollution and combat climate change.
'When it comes to the care of our 'common home,' we are living at a critical moment of history,' he said.
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Obama said Francis reminded the world that 'we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet – God's magnificent gift to us.'
The next day, Francis made history when he became the first pope to address a joint session of Congress. Outside the U.S. Capitol, a crowd estimated at 50,000 watched the pope's speech live on Jumbotrons. The masses cheered when he invoked Martin Luther King Jr.'s Freedom March from Selma to Montgomery and urged lawmakers to embrace 'the stranger in our midst.'
A few minutes after wrapping up his speech, Pope Francis appeared on a Capitol balcony with a group of dignitaries that included two prominent Catholics, Biden and House Speaker John Boehner. The pontiff blessed the masses below and asked them to pray for him.
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Trump feuded with Pope Francis long before he ever met him.
A few days after Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected in 2013 to be the next pope of the Catholic Church, Trump, then a businessman and TV reality star, questioned the frugality of the man who would become known as Pope Francis.
"I don't like seeing the Pope standing at the checkout counter (front desk) of a hotel in order to pay his bill," Trump tweeted. "It's not Pope-like!"
By the time Trump declared his candidacy and emerged as the GOP frontrunner two years later in 2015, he declared that the pope 'seems like a pretty good guy' but complained that he was too political. Asked during an interview on CNN how he'd respond if the pope told him capitalism was too toxic, he replied, 'I'd say, 'ISIS wants to get you.''
A few months later, Trump said the pope doesn't understand the problems the United States faces, particularly the open border with Mexico. The pope suggested Trump "is not a Christian' amid the Republican's calls for deporting immigrants and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.
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"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian," he told journalists. "This is not the gospel."
Trump responded that the pontiff's remarks were 'disgraceful.'
Four months after Trump became president, he met with Francis as part of his first trip abroad as leader of the free world. The private meeting took place on May 24, 2017, at Vatican City.
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Photos before their meeting showed Trump smiling broadly, while the pope appeared stern. However, the pontiff emerged from their talk with a more upbeat look. The pope gave Trump a signed-and-bound copy of his remarks from World Peace Day and a set of English-language translations of his papal writings, including his 2015 encyclical on climate change.
'I'll be reading them,' said Trump, a climate change skeptic. 'We can use peace," he added.
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Trump later tweeted: "Honor of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis. I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue PEACE in our world.'
The Vatican, in a statement, expressed hope that the encounter would be the start of a 'serene collaboration' with the Trump administration.
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Biden had already met Pope Francis three times before becoming president.
In 2013, when Biden was vice president, he led the U.S. delegation to Francis' formal installation as pope. The two men met again when the pontiff visited the United States in 2015 and when Biden visited the Vatican in 2016 to speak about cancer prevention at a conference on regenerative medicine
By 2021, Biden was president. A devout Catholic who attends Mass regularly and carried rosary beads that belonged to his deceased son Beau, Biden faced serious concerns among some U.S. Catholic bishops over his support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Some conservative bishops questioned whether Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should be allowed to receive Communion.
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Nine months after Biden took office, he met with Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 30, 2021, while he was in Rome for the Group of 20 summit of world leaders. The meeting with the pope was closed to the press, but Biden said abortion never came up during their conversation and that Francis told him he should continue to receive Communion.
"We just talked about the fact he was happy that I was a good Catholic, and I should keep receiving Communion,' Biden said.
Biden said the pope blessed his rosary and that he said a prayer with the pontiff. "And he said one for me," he said.
Biden also joked about their ages. At the time, he was 78 and Francis was 84, but Biden suggested they both felt a lot younger.
"God love ya!" Biden told the pope, using one of his familiar expressions that took on greater significant at the Vatican.
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The meeting lasted for nearly an hour and half, longer than Francis' meetings with Obama and Trump.
Biden had planned to meet with Francis again the weekend before his presidential term ended in January. But he canceled the trip so he could remain in the United States and focus on wildfires in Los Angeles.
Contributing: David Jackson
Follow Michael Collins on X @mcollinsNEWS.