U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden met with Pope Benedict XVI in an
unannounced visit to the Vatican, June 3. Both sides have been
tight-lipped as to what was discussed.
“I have no comment. It was a totally private meeting and there will
no communiqué,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., told
CNA on June 3.
In fact the meeting wasn’t even listed on the Pope’s daily public
schedule.
One of the few give-aways was the heavy security surrounding
the Port Sant’ Anna entrance to the Vatican all morning. Journalists
covering the Pope’s meeting with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas
also spotted Biden’s car at the Vatican.
Vice President Biden is in Rome to mark the 150th anniversary of the
country’s unification.
Although he is a Catholic, Biden has had a
troubled relationship with the Church because of his stance on certain
issues, such as abortion.
In fact, after gaining the vice presidential nomination in 2008 he
was criticized by his own bishop, the late Bishop Michael Saltarelli of
Wilmington, for his stance on abortion.
Biden was subsequently barred
from speaking at events in Catholic schools in the diocese.
Biden has repeatedly stated at the he believes life begins at
conception but that he would not want to impose his personal beliefs on
others.
This was countered by Bishop Saltarelli in 2004 when he replied;
“No one today would accept this statement from any public servant: ‘I
am personally opposed to human slavery and racism but will not impose
my personal conviction in the legislative arena.’ Likewise, none of us
should accept this statement from any public servant: ‘I am personally
opposed to abortion but will not impose my personal conviction in the
legislative arena.’”
Biden isn’t the first senior Democrat who supports legalized abortion and is Catholic to meet Pope Benedict XVI.
In 2009 then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also visited the Pope
at the Vatican.
Afterwards she claimed, “I had the opportunity to praise
the Church's leadership in fighting poverty, hunger, and global
warming, as well as the Holy Father's dedication to religious freedom
and his upcoming trip and message to Israel.”
This version of events, though, was somewhat contradicted by a Vatican statement issued only hours later:
“His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of
the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the
dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all
Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for
the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men and
women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of
protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
Vice President Biden also had meeting in Rome with Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
on the issue of the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the Pope also held separate discussions on the same issue
with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.