Currents News Staff
The Holy Father and President Biden have met three times before. But Friday, Oct. 29 will be a historic face-to-face and yet we won’t see much of it. That’s because the Vatican has canceled the planned live broadcast of the meeting.
It’s just the latest restriction to media coverage. The Vatican press office didn’t provide any explanation as to why the much-anticipated visit between Pope Francis and President Joe Biden wouldn’t be broadcasted live.
Instead, the Vatican said it’ll provide edited footage after all is said and done. Their meeting comes amid controversy. Some U.S. bishops have called out Biden over his pro-abortion policies. But Vatican experts, like John Allen from Crux, says that’s not likely to come up during this meeting.
“In terms of the pope’s social justice agenda, more or less, President Biden is on board,” John said. “There are obvious areas of disagreement, beginning with the life issues, abortion and gay marriage and so on, but neither Pope Francis nor Biden are particularly inclined to emphasize those things.”
Instead, Biden and Pope Francis are expected to focus on policy issues like COVID-19, the climate crisis, and promoting common policies to care for the poor.
“There is a structural relationship between the United States and the Vatican that dates back decades,” John said, “and it centers on non-political issues, like human trafficking, like humanitarian relief after natural disasters, like getting visas for migrants so they can get out of conflict zone. The United States has enormous political leverage, and the Vatican has enormous moral leverage, and this about cementing that partnership.”
The meeting comes only weeks before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will meet to discuss drafting a teaching document on communion, and whether pro-abortion Catholics should participate in it.
In September, the pontiff was asked about the situation while returning to Rome from his apostolic visit to Slovakia.
“Be a pastor,” Pope Francis said. “And a pastor knows what he should do in every situation. But as a pastor, if he moves away from the church’s pastoral approach, then he immediately becomes a politician. And you will see this in all the denunciations, in all the non-pastoral condemnations that the Church makes.”