Biden to travel to Italy for meetings with pope, Meloni in January

President Biden will travel to Italy in January for meetings with Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

The trip, from Jan. 9 to 12, will likely be his last foreign trip as president before President-elect Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

Biden will have an audience with the pope on Jan. 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.

Biden is just the second Catholic president in U.S. history and has a relationship with the pope, who has supported him despite the church’s teachings against abortion. The two met in June while Biden was in Italy for Group of Seven meetings.

He also met with the pope in October 2021 as conservative Catholic bishops were mulling whether he should be able to receive communion due to his pro-abortion rights stance. Biden, at the time, said the pope told him he should keep receiving communion.

A month later, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a document on communion without mentioning whether Biden or other politicians should be denied the rite based on their stance on abortion, signaling an end to the debate on the issue.

Biden has also recalled that the pope came to Washington, D.C., in 2015 while he was vice president and his son Beau had just passed away. He said that the pope spent 10 to 15 minutes talking with the family about his late son.