ROME — President Joe Biden has announced he will travel to Italy in January to meet with Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
The White House said Biden spoke with Pope Francis by phone on Thursday, during which he “graciously accepted His Holiness Pope Francis’s invitation to visit the Vatican next month.”
Pope Francis will receive Biden, only the second Catholic to serve as U.S. president, in the Vatican on January 10 to “discuss efforts to advance peace around the world,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
“He will also meet with Italy’s leaders to highlight the strength of the U.S.-Italy relationship, thank Prime Minister Meloni for her strong leadership of the G7 over the past year, and discuss important challenges facing the world,” she added.
Despite his Catholic status, Biden has had a strained relationship with the Catholic hierarchy since his election in 2020, due to his rejection of key tenets of Catholic morality, namely through his active support for taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand and his advocacy for transgenderism.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue has underscored the hostility Mr. Biden has displayed toward Catholic beliefs across a range of issues.
“Never before in American history has there been a president of the United States who has worked harder to oppose Catholic teachings on marriage, the family, abortion, school choice, conscience rights, and the wellbeing of children (e.g., transgenderism) than President Joe Biden,” Dr. Donohue stated in 2022.
The U.S. Bishops sharply criticized Biden for his transgender war on Catholic Charities as well as his support for the Equality Act, which “hinders quality health care, endangers the privacy and safety of women and girls, regulates free speech, severely undermines religious freedom, and threatens charitable nonprofits and the people they serve.”
In January, 2021, the U.S. Bishops’ Conference (USCCB) condemned Biden’s reinstatement of taxpayer-funded abortions around the world.
“It is grievous that one of President Biden’s first official acts actively promotes the destruction of human lives in developing nations,” declared Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop David Malloy, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace in a statement.
“This Executive Order is antithetical to reason, violates human dignity, and is incompatible with Catholic teaching. We and our brother bishops strongly oppose this action,” the bishops stated.
As one of his first acts, Biden signed an executive order allowing U.S. taxpayer funds to be sent to organizations that both “promote and provide abortions in developing countries,” revoking the life-saving Mexico City policy, the Bishops noted.
The mainstream consistently presented President Biden as a “devout Catholic” who takes his faith seriously, despite his egregious actions to the contrary.
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is an abominable crime and a sin so grave that the harshest punishment the Church imposes — automatic excommunication — is attached to it.
The Church also teaches that Catholic politicians have a “grave and clear obligation to oppose” any law that promotes abortion.
Throughout his tenure as president, Biden has promoted the abortion industry and fulfilled his campaign promise, cited in a Planned Parenthood ad, to do “everything in my power” to defend and expand abortion rights.
Even the liberal Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory acknowledged that Biden is a “cafeteria Catholic,’’ picking and choosing what doctrines he wants to believe in, citing the president’s support for “abortion rights” and transgender “visibility” as examples.
Biden’s upcoming trip to Italy, from January 9 to 12, will almost certainly be his last foreign trip as president before Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20.
For her part, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made a point of publicizing her closeness to Donald Trump, as well as to Trump advisor Elon Musk.
