BARI, Italy — President Joe Biden is expected to meet privately with Pope Francis on Friday on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy, according to a senior administration official.
The pontiff will become the first pope to participate in G7 discussions and is choosing to focus his attention on artificial intelligence, both its technological advantages and potential dangers.
The meeting between Biden, a devout Catholic who attends weekly Mass, and the church leader comes days after a jury found his son Hunter Biden guilty of firearms crimes related to his drug addiction. Biden, who speaks frequently about the importance of his family and the loss of two of his children and his first wife, noted that his faith guides him through difficult times.
Biden last met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in October 2021, when the president praised him as “the most important warrior for peace I have ever met.”
The two have since exchanged written messages, the official said.
During his interview with special adviser Robert Hur last year, Biden said he was still in contact with the pontiff during a discussion about some portfolios that included one titled “Papal Visits.”
“I still communicate with the pope, you know what I mean. But is it constant? No. In any case,” he said, according to the transcript released by the White House.
Later, during some cross-talk, Biden joked, “He’s my ticket.” As the group laughed, he responded, “That was a joke.”
In Apulia, the pope is expected to have individual meetings with the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, the Indian Narendra Modi, the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Canadian Justin Trudeau, the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Kenyan William Ruto and the Algerian Abdelmadjid. Tebboune, according to the Vatican.
Although Francis, 87, has said he intends to serve as long as his health allows, there has been some speculation about a potential transition plan for the future. A possible successor is Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna. Biden met with him in the Oval Office last summer, where they discussed, among other things, the Vatican’s advocacy for the safe return of forcibly deported Ukrainian children.
Biden has known the current pope since 2013, when then-president Barack Obama chose the country’s first Catholic vice-president to lead the American delegation to Rome for his inauguration.
The president later recalled that in his first brief meeting with the newly installed pontiff, Francis hugged him and said: “You are always welcome here.”
In 2015, just three months after Biden’s eldest son, Beau, died of brain cancer, the pope held a private audience with the president and his family before wrapping up a multi-day visit to Philadelphia.
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