Vatican calling: Pope congratulates Joe Biden on election
It' s not exactly divine intervention, but even the pope considers the U.S. presidential race over.
President-elect Joe Biden, a lifelong Roman Catholic, spoke to Pope Francis on Thursday, despite President Donald Trump refusing to concede. Trump claims — without evidence — that the election was stolen from him through massive but unspecified acts of fraud.
Bid en' s transition team said in a statement that the president-elect thanked Francis for “extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation.” He also saluted the pontiff's “leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world.”
Bid en said he hopes to work with Francis on issues such as climate change, poverty and immigration.
News of the call came even as some Catholic bishops in the U.S. decline to acknowledge Bid en' s victory and argue that the faithful should not back him because of his support for abortion rights.
On Tuesday, for example, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, tweeted that Bid en and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris support“the slaughter of innocents” at any point during pregnancy.
Biden has said he accepts church doctrine about abortion on a personal level, but does not want to impose that belief on everyone.
Bid en has had several phone calls this week with foreign leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Mac ron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They have congratulated him on winning and consider the election settled.
Having the pope on board, too, likely has special significance for Biden.
He is just the second Catholic to be elected president in U.S. history, and the first since John F. Kennedy. Biden speaks frequently and openly about the importance of faith in his life and attends Mass near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, nearly every week.
No matter their faith, American politicians are often eager to meet with the pope when traveling near Rome, though Francis declined to meet with Trump' s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, in September, citing rules against such sit-downs during election periods. Francis last visited the U.S. in 2015.