By AAMER MADHANI and NICOLE WINFIELD
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is expected to announce soon that President Joe Biden will visit the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis next month for what would likely be the final international trip of his presidency, according to three people familiar with the matter.
They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the White House deliberations.
Asked about the potential Vatican visit, White House officials declined to comment.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni also declined to confirm or deny any visit, noting that Vatican policy is only to announce papal audiences with visiting heads of state a few days before they occur.
Overseas visits this late in a U.S. presidency aren’t typical. The last president to travel overseas in the final month of his presidency was fellow one-termer George H.W. Bush, who traveled in early January 1993 to Moscow to sign a nuclear treaty and to Paris for talks with French President François Mitterrand about the Bosnian war, according to State Department historical records.
Biden, a practicing Roman Catholic, last met privately with Pope Francis earlier this year while in Italy for the Group of Seven leaders meeting.
He also met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2021, when they had a wide-ranging conversation about climate change, poverty and the coronavirus pandemic. Their warm conversation also touched on the loss of the president’s adult son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, and included jokes about aging well.
Biden’s support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage has put him at odds with many U.S. bishops, some of whom have suggested he should be denied Communion.
But following the Vatican meeting in 2021, Biden said Francis called him a “good Catholic” who should keep receiving Communion.
While in Rome, Biden could take advantage of being at the Vatican during the Holy Year, which officially opens on Christmas Eve.
Holy Years are generally celebrated every 25 to 50 years, and over the centuries have been used to encourage the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome to pray at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and obtain an indulgence — the ancient church tradition related to the forgiveness of sins that roughly amounts to a “get out of Purgatory free” card.
Pilgrims who pass through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica can obtain the indulgence, and the Vatican is expecting some 32 million people will flock to Rome over 2025 to participate in the pilgrimage.
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Winfield reported from Rome. AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
