Pope Francis, left, greets U.S. President Joe Biden during a working session on AI, Energy, Africa and Mideast at the G7 summit, in Borgo Egnazia, near Bari in southern Italy, Friday, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Former President Biden and former first lady Jill Biden are expected to attend Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome on Saturday, a Biden spokesperson told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister station, on Friday.
Biden, who was the country’s second Roman Catholic president after former President Kennedy, met with Pope Francis on numerous occasions after he became the Catholic church’s leader in 2013, including in a private one-on-one visit between the two in 2021 a few months after the former Democratic president took office.
“He was unlike any who came before him,” Biden wrote in wrote in a post on the social media platform X just hours after the pope died on Monday. “Above all, he was a Pope for everyone. He was the People’s Pope — a light of faith, hope and love.”
The trailblazing Catholic leader known for human-rights advocacy and sharp political edge, died April 21 at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. His death came after a long series of health complications stemming from a chronic lung disease, the Vatican announced..
The pontiff was initially hospitalized on Feb. 14 with bronchitis, contracted pneumonia four days later and remained in critical condition for days. He never fully recovered and later suffered a stroke which led to a coma and his heart ultimately failed, according to officials.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump are also among the world leaders expected to attend the funeral Saturday morning. The president ordered flags at half-staff earlier this week to commemorate the pope.
Francis is the first sitting pope to die in 20 years, since Pope John Paul II died in 2005. His death will now spark the process of finding a new pope, which is wrought with tradition.
Updated at 10:16 a.m. EDT
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