President-elect Joe Biden spoke Thursday morning with Pope Francis. The two met in Washington, D.C., in 2015.
VietPress USA (Nov. 12, 2020):
Associated Press and other Media today announced that Pope Francis made a phone call from Vatican to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris for their winning the Amrican 2020 Election. It’s not exactly divine intervention, but even the pope considers the U.S. presidential race over.
President-elect Joe Biden, a lifelong Roman Catholic, spoke to Pope Francis on Thursday, despite President Donald Trump refusing to concede. Trump claims — without evidence — that the election was stolen from him through massive but unspecified acts of fraud.
Biden’s transition team said in a statement that the president-elect thanked Francis for “extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation.” He also saluted the pontiff’s “leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world.”
Biden said he hopes to work with Francis on issues such as climate change, poverty and immigration.
News of the call came even as some Catholic bishops in the U.S. decline to acknowledge Biden’s victory and argue that the faithful should not back him because of his support for abortion rights.
On Tuesday, for example, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, tweeted that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris support “the slaughter of innocents” at any point during pregnancy.
Biden has said he accepts church doctrine about abortion on a personal level, but does not want to impose that belief on everyone.
Biden has had several phone calls this week with foreign leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They have congratulated him on winning and consider the election settled.
According to a statement from the Biden-Harris transition team, the pair discussed some policy areas in which Biden is likely to break from President Trump.
"The president-elect expressed his desire to work together on the basis of a shared belief in the dignity and equality of all humankind on issues such as caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities," the statement reads.
Francis has been outspoken on these issues and has repeatedly called on global leaders to take more action to confront them. Biden has laid out ambitious plans to tackle the climate crisis, and he plans to lift the United States' refugee resettlement cap, which Trump had lowered to a record level.
Read more details from POLITICO at the following Link:
Pope Francis offers congratulations to Biden
Biden is poised to become the second Roman Catholic president.
Pope Francis spoke by phone with Joe Biden on Thursday morning, becoming the latest world leader to congratulate the American president-elect.
Biden thanked Francis “for extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation for His Holiness’ leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world,” according to a statement from the Biden transition team.
Biden also “expressed his desire to work together on the basis of a shared belief in the dignity and equality of all humankind on issues such as caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities,” the statement said.
Their conversation came after several other members of the international community have reached out to Biden in recent days, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Biden and Francis have met at least once before, when Francis became the first pope to address a joint session of Congress in 2015. Biden, then vice president, was seated behind Francis atop the House speaker's rostrum as the pope delivered his remarks.
The call Thursday between the pope and the president-elect is also notable because Biden is poised to become the first Roman Catholic president of the United States since John F. Kennedy. Biden frequently recited scripture on the 2020 campaign trail and is known to carry rosary beads in his pocket.
“Faith sees best in the dark,” he sometimes says in public remarks, quoting the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard. Biden attended Mass on Election Day morning, and in his victory speech Saturday, he invoked the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings.”
o00o
