The US president talks with the pontiff in the Vatican for an hour and a quarter, an unusual duration confirming the relationship between the two. On the table the climate crisis, support for the poorest on earth, concerns about the agreement between China and the Vatican and the confrontation with the US bishops (who are attacking both)
VATICAN CITY – The Trump era had already closed at the end of June, when the audience with the new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had finished melting the chill that had accompanied the years of “The Donald” in the White House. And now the meeting between Pope Francis and Joe Biden is like a new beginning, not without problems but supported by mutual respect. An interview lasted an hour and a quarter, an unusual length confirming the relationship between the two.
Fifth meeting
The American president arrived at the Vatican at noon, accompanied by his wife Jill. AND the first time that Joe Biden is received by the Pope as president of the United States, even if it is the fifth meeting between the two: as Obama’s deputy, Biden had already had the opportunity to see Francis in 2013 in Rome after the Conclave, twice in 2015 in Washington and Philadelphia during the Pope’s trip to the US and again in the Vatican in 2016. In 2014 Obama spoke with the Pope for 50 minutes, Trump in 2017 stopped at 30.
What has been talked about
Biden – arrived in Rome for the G20
– is the second Catholic president of the United States after John Fitzgerald Kennedy
. The first, historic meeting between a Catholic in the White House and a Pope took place on July 2, 1963, Paul VI had been elected for eleven days and JFK would have been killed less than five months later. Now everything is different, to meet are two men who have found themselves facing the most important task of their life at an already advanced age (Biden is 78 years old, Francesco turns 85 and was elected at 76) and they have many things in common , starting with the opponents. The hearing was full of topics, global issues on which the harmony between the two is known: the need to tackle the climate crisis, the exit from the pandemic and support for the poorest on earth (Francis asks that “the large laboratories liberalize patents “to be able to produce vaccines in countries that have lagged behind), inequalities, migrations, the Middle East. The American concerns about the renewed agreement between China and the Holy See on the appointment of bishops, such as the Vatican perplexity over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan: “The decision to withdraw Western forces could have been reached, but in a more orderly manner and without creating all this suffering,” Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said last month, who met Biden after the president’s audience with Dad.
Common opponents
In short, a very dense agenda. Yet perhaps the most important thing about this morning’s meeting was the meeting itself between Francesco and Biden. There is a personal relationship that dates back to when, as the president himself recalled, Francesco comforted him in 2015 after the death of his eldest son Beau Biden from cancer at the age of 46. And then there are the common opponents: the resistance to Francis of the most conservative episcopate has lasted for years and corresponds to the same area that opposes Biden after supporting Trump, the US Catholic right hostile to Bergoglio and rich in funding and networks. In 2019, responding to the journalists who follow him in flight on international travels, Francis replied dryly: “I pray that there is no schism, but I’m not afraid: there have been many schisms in the Church”. In the most extreme cases, the opposition is now uncovered, the schism is in fact and touches the basic principle, for those who belong to the Catholic Church, of respect and obedience to the bishop of Rome. “For example, there is a large Catholic television that constantly gossip about the Pope without posing any problems. I personally can deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the Church does not deserve this: it is the work of the devil. I also told some of them, ”Francis told his Jesuit confreres in Slovakia on 12 September. The reference was to Ewtn, the “Eternal Word Television Network”, a Catholic colossus that gives a voice to all of Francis’ protesters.
The attack of Archbishop Chaput
On 21 October Charles Chaput, archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia who for years served on the board of Ewtn, wrote in the neocon magazine “First Things” that “any suggestion that” Ewtn is unfaithful to the Church, to the Second Vatican Council or to the Holy See it is simply vindictive and false “, and this in an article in which he said he was aware that Francesco’s words referred to that network: an archbishop, in short, “defines the Pope a liar” and also “vindictive”, noted the National Catholic Reporter.
Clash over the Eucharist
The rest For months, the conservative majority of the Bishops’ Conference has been thinking of approving a “declaration on the Eucharist” which intends to forbid the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who, despite being opposed to abortion in itself, support freedom of choice and therefore the laws that regulate termination of pregnancy. The latest version is that the document, to be voted on next month, would be blurred and would have no references to politicians after the Vatican stop, but amendments are possible until the last. Certainly the main targets have been President Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from the beginning, and it is significant that the Pope, before Biden, wished to receive Pelosi on 9 October. Francis does not want the Eucharist to become a political question
, or worse still a tool. On December 15, on the return flight from Slovakia, Francis repeated to journalists that “abortion is murder” but added: “I have never refused the Eucharist to anyone”. As a demonstration of the climate in the American Church, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, one of Francis’ greatest opponents, spread a long message a few hours before the meeting between the Pope and Biden which sounds like a direct attack: «I invite you to pray with me for the Church in the United States of America and in every nation, so that, faithful to the mission of Christ, her Spouse, she may be faithful, clear and uncompromising in the application of can. 915, defending the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist, safeguarding the souls of Catholic politicians who would seriously violate the moral law and would still present themselves to receive Holy Communion, thus committing a sacrilege ».
October 29, 2021 (change October 29, 2021 | 15:16)
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