ROME — Catholic League president Bill Donohue congratulated the Vatican Thursday for rebuffing attempts by the White House to exploit a Francis-Biden meeting for political purposes.
The Biden administration “was banking on posting pictures of the two men grinning and shaking hands,” Donohue writes in reference to a meeting between the pope and Biden slated for Saturday.
“But now the Vatican has thrown a monkey wrench into this opportunistic gambit,” he adds. “The media have been mostly barred from covering the meeting.”
The Vatican announced Thursday that there will be no live coverage of Biden greeting the pope and that no media will be allowed to cover the two men sitting down to begin their conversation.
“In other words, the optics that the White House was counting on are dead in the water,” Donohue states.
Biden is in trouble with the U.S. bishops because he “adamantly rejects core Catholic moral teachings” on abortion, religious liberty, and LGBT issues, Donohue observes, which helps explain why “the White House is out to milk the meeting between Pope Francis and President Biden.”
A number of U.S. bishops have publicly rebuked the president for his aggressive promotion of abortion, which the Catholic Church considers to be murder. Debates have been ongoing among the prelates regarding whether or not a public figure who actively promotes abortion should be allowed to receive Holy Communion at Mass.
Unlike typical papal meetings with a head of state where media film an exchange of gifts in the pope’s library, this time only a few select professionals, chosen by the Vatican, will be allowed, Donohue notes.
“Kudos to the Vatican. They know when they are being used,” he adds.