President Joe Biden has announced he will travel to Italy in January to meet with Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
The White House said Biden spoke with Pope Francis by phone on Thursday, during which he “graciously accepted His Holiness Pope Francis’s invitation to visit the Vatican next month.”
Pope Francis will receive Biden, only the second Catholic to serve as U.S. president, in the Vatican on January 10 to “discuss efforts to advance peace around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
“He will also meet with Italy’s leaders to highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy relationship, thank Prime Minister Meloni for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year, and discuss important challenges facing the world,” she added.
Despite his Catholic status, Biden has had a strained relationship with the Catholic hierarchy since his election in 2020, due to his rejection of key tenets of Catholic morality, namely through his active support for taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand and his advocacy for transgenderism.
