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| Pope Francis and President Obama at the Vatican |
President Barack Obama is holding
a historic first meeting with Pope Francis, the pontiff that the
president views as a kindred spirit on issues of economic inequality and
the poor.
Obama arrived
at the Vatican Thursday morning amid the pomp and tradition of the
Catholic Church, making his way to greet the pope after a long, slow
procession.
The pontiff and the president shook hands before sitting
down with their translators at a wooden table for their meeting.
Obama is the
ninth president to make an official visit to the Vatican. His audience
marks a change of pace for the president, who has devoted the past three
days of a week long, four-country trip to securing European unity
against Russia's aggressive posture toward Ukraine.
To be sure, the
relationship between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church is
a fraught one. And Vatican officials say Obama will not leave without
having heard Francis' views on Obama's health care law and its mandates
for contraception coverage. But in Francis, the White House sees the
popular pope and his emphasis on economic disparity as a form of moral
validation of the president's economic agenda.
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