President and the Pope make peace
VATICAN CITY: A year after he called Pope Francis ‘‘disgraceful’’ for criticising his intention to build a wall along the Mexican border, Donald Trump was all smiles for his first meeting with the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
The US president appeared keen to bury the hatchet after the spat with the Latin American pontiff, who had said that anyone intent on building walls rather than bridges was ‘‘not Christian’’.
But that was largely forgotten - or at least ignored - when Trump swept up to St Peter’s Square in a 50-car motorcade, to be met by Swiss Guards in traditional harlequin uniform.
As the meeting began in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope was unsmiling and subdued, staring at the floor as they stood for photographs, while Trump beamed. But after a half-hour meeting behind closed doors, Francis seemed to have cheered up considerably. He even made a light-hearted jest, asking Melania Trump ‘‘What do you feed him, putizza?’’ - a reference to a dessert from her native Slovenia.
At the end of the meeting, there was an exchange of gifts, as is customary. The Pope gave the president a copy of Laudato Si, an encyclical he wrote on the environment - a pointed gift, given that Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris accord on combating climate change.
There remains much to divide the two men, from their views on capitalism to the building of the border wall, but as the meeting came to a conclusion, Trump told the Pope: ‘‘Thank you, I won’t forget what you said.’’
In a subsequent tweet, he wrote: ‘‘Honor of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis. I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue PEACE in our world.’’ - Telegraph Group