Pope Francis met with President Barack Obama in the Vatican for nearly an hour this afternoon for a discussion that remains largely private.FoxNews.com is reporting that the press was given access to the initial greeting between the two leaders which began with a slow procession to the Small Throne Room of the official papal residence.
"Wonderful meeting you, I'm a great admirer," the president said to the Pope when they met for the first time.
The two shook hands and then sat down with their translators at a wooden table in the Papal Library for their meeting.
"I bring greetings from my family," the president said. "The last time I came here to meet your predecessor I was able to bring my wife and children."
As Fox reports, the two were scheduled to meet for half an hour, but their private discussion lasted 52 minutes. What was said remains private; however, an article by Vatican Radio in advance of the meeting let it be known that the meeting was taking place "in the context of a complex phase of the administration's relations with the Church of the United States." It specifically mentioned implementation of the health care law and legalization of gay marriage.
When the meeting ended, Obama emerged looking "buoyed" as the pope greeted some of the president's senior advisors.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who is a long-time supporter of abortion rights and, more recently, same-sex marriage, pronounced himself "a great admirer of everything you've been doing, as a Catholic, for the church."
It was at this time that the president presented the pope with a custom-made seed chest filled with fruit and vegetable seeds used in the White House Garden. Made of leather and reclaimed wood from one of the nation's oldest Cathedrals - Baltimore's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - it was engraved with the date of the meeting.
We can only speculate about what was spoken between the two men but, as Fox reports, the president had an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera ahead of the visit in which he said he planned to discuss "their shared commitment to fighting poverty and income inequality."
The president told the paper: "The pope challenges us. He implores us to remember people, families, the poor. He invites us to stop and reflect on the dignity of man."
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