US President Joe Biden is due to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday. (file)
Washington:
Devout Roman Catholic Joe Biden met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday at a time when the US president is under intense pressure over his controversial position in the abortion rights dispute.
Biden regularly attends weekly Mass and keeps a picture of the Pope behind his desk in the Oval Office. He has said that he is personally against abortion, but cannot impose his views as an elected leader.
But conservative Catholic media and America’s conservative bishops have criticized him for that stance, with some saying he should be banned from receiving communion, the central sacrament of the faith.
At the same time, advocates of abortion rights have been intimidated by a new Texas law that places an almost complete ban on abortion. Biden’s administration has challenged the law and the Supreme Court will hear the case next Monday.
It is not known whether Biden and Pope Francis will discuss abortion and sectarian disputes in their private meeting on Friday, their first meeting since Biden took office.
“It is clear that the Pope does not agree with the President about abortion. He has made it exceptionally clear,” Archbishop William Lowry of Baltimore told the Catholic News Service.
Asked about the mass debate in the US last month, the pope told reporters that abortion was “murder”. But he appeared to criticize American Catholic bishops for dealing with the issue in a political rather than pastoral manner.
The Pope said, “Reconciliation is not a reward for perfect… fellowship is a gift, the presence of Jesus and His Church.”
He said bishops should exercise “compassion and tenderness” with Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
Since his election as the first Latin American pope in 2013, Francis has said that the church should oppose abortion, but that it should not become an all-consumer battle in the culture wars that divert attention from issues such as immigration and poverty. Is.
In June, a divided convention of American Roman Catholic bishops
Voted on Communion to draft a statement that some bishops say should specifically warn Catholic politicians, including Biden.
The bishops, who went ahead despite warnings from the Vatican that it would sow discord instead of unity, will raise the issue again next month.
Catholics hold two of the top three offices in the United States – the other being Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. But instead of uniting co-religionists, as was the case in the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy’s first Catholic president, both Biden and Pelosi have been attacked by church conservatives.
He stepped up his criticism of Biden this month when his administration challenged the Texas law.
While Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., hasn’t tried to stop Biden from receiving the banquet, the archbishop in Pelosi’s home city of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordillon, has told his priests not to give it to him.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement last week that the meeting would include “working together on efforts with respect to fundamental human dignity.” This would include ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis and taking care of the poor, she said.
Like Biden, Pope has urged everyone to get vaccinated and has issued several appeals to protect the environment by reducing the use of fossil fuels. Biden will attend the UN climate change summit in Glasgow and the Pope is expected to send a message.
Many American bishops are climate change skeptics who backed former President Donald Trump, with whom Pope Francis had many disagreements.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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