Pence meets with pope, talks abortion as March for Life rallies in Washington

VATICAN CITY — Vice President Mike Pence met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, discussing the anti-abortion march in Washington and telling the pontiff, “You made me a hero” back home by granting him a private audience.

The pope and the vice president had a private hourlong conversation.

The hero description apparently referred to Pence’s Catholic family upbringing. He later became an evangelical Christian.

Before journalists were ushered out of the library, Pence told Francis: “I want to extend the warmest greeting on behalf of President Donald Trump, who so enjoyed his visit here.”

Trump had a private audience with Francis at the Vatican in 2017, and on Friday in Washington, the president was attending an anti-abortion rally in Washington. Trump is the first sitting president to do so in the history of the annual March for Life’s history.

Pence’s office said the march was among the topics discussed with the pontiff. Catholic church teaching forbids abortion, and Pence himself has been staunchly anti-abortion.

In an interview right after his Vatican visit, Pence told U.S. Catholic media outlet EWTN News that it was a “great privilege” to meet with Francis.

He said meeting with Francis on a day when “literally hundreds of thousands of Americans, including many Catholic Americans, are gathered on our National Mall in Washington, D.C., standing up for the right to life was a particular joy for me.”

Pence also praised Francis for his “passion for the sanctity of life.”

The vice president’s office also said Pence and the pope talked about the crisis in Venezuela and about displaced religious minorities in the Middle East.

The Vatican didn’t say what was discussed.

Francis smiled warmly throughout the traditional exchange of gifts at the end of the audience. Pence presented the pope with a large, plain wooden cross made from a tree on the grounds of his official residence in Washington.

Francis gave Pence five bound books of his writings as pope.

Alessandro Di Meo / Associated Press Pope Francis exchanges gifts with Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, right. “You made me a hero” back home, Pence told the pope, by granting him a private audience at the Vatican.