By Omri Shahar
Amidst the recent controversy in the Catholic Church, Pope Francis decided to meet with Joe Biden, despite Biden’s role in recent drama. The U.S. Catholic Church is currently in a consuming civil-debate, a conversation started by Biden’s increasing advocacy for increasing availability to abortions. The U.S. bishops believe that Biden should not take the Catholic rite of Communion due to his support of this trending issue. The Pope seems not to mind, saying that communion should be left up to priests, and the churchgoers participating.After the two men shook hands and exchanged gifts, the Pope gave Biden a signed declaration of peace, with Biden handing the Pope a coin representing his deceased veteran son. This was followed by a 90 minute supposedly casual conversation, in which Biden claimed the Pope never questioned his views on abortion. He instead said that the Pope was happy that Biden was a “good Catholic”, and how he should keep receiving communion. Because of COVID-19 protocols, the Vatican did not allow Biden and his crew to film the interaction, but Biden clarified that the meeting was not only political, but also personal. He claims they talked about COVID-19, new policy, and more.
Even though they have disagreements on paper, the two seemed quite friendly at the meeting, and talked about it afterwards. Biden also hung out with Francis for significantly longer than other presidents, with Trump having a bad relationship with the Pope, causing short meetings. Obama had average meetings with the Pope, about 52 minutes, compared to Trump’s 30 and Biden’s whopping 90 minutes.