White House Says Meeting Between Trump and Pope Francis Can Still Happen
As President Donald Trump's official European trip in late May draws near, there's still no word whether he will make a quick stopover to Rome for an audience with Pope Francis. But Washington is not closing its door on the possibility of a meeting between the two heads of state.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters they are reaching out to the Vatican to set up a possible meeting between the president and the pontiff.
"We will be reaching out to the Vatican to see if an audience with the pope can be accommodated," he said. "We would be honored to have an audience with his holiness."
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Sought for comment, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told AFP that they haven't received an official request for an audience as of last week but would welcome it, adding that he did not foresee a conflict of schedule around the dates Trump will be in Italy.
Trump is due in Sicily on May 26–27 for the G7 Summit, a meeting of the heads of the world's richest nations. This will be followed by a conference in Brussels for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). U.S. presidents have in the past made a beeline for the Vatican while they were in Italy or Europe to meet with the head of the world's largest Christian church.
However, Pope Francis expressed critical comments against Trump's anti-immigration policies during the last presidential campaign. Thus, relations between the Holy See and the current administration started on the wrong foot. The United States doesn't have an ambassador to Rome as of the moment and all diplomatic matters are handled by Louis L. Bono, the current Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.
One of the probable candidates for the position for the ambassadorship to Rome is former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr who, if chosen, would be the first Evangelical Protestant to occupy the post. Every U.S. envoy to the Vatican has been Catholic since President Ronald Reagan established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1984.
