President Joe Biden was not issued an invite to the Thursday funeral of Pope Benedict XVI, and the U.S. will end up being represented at the pontiff’s burial by its ambassador to Italy, explained White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a Wednesday statement.
It was not quite clear if this lack of invitation was an intentional direct snub against Biden, a Catholic who nonetheless has stood as a steadfast supporter of abortion. However, Jean-Pierre stated that the expected result went along with the wishes of the late pope himself.
“The U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Joe Donnelly, will represent the United States at the funeral of the Pope, in line with the wishes of the late Pope and the Vatican,” explained Jean-Pierre. “This is what — this is what their requests were. This is what their wishes were.”
Benedict, who was born in Germany, died at the age of 95 on the 31st of December. He previously stepped down from the role as pope back in 2013 and was quickly succeeded by Pope Francis, but did keep the official title of pope emeritus.
The only national delegations that were issued an official invite were the German and Italian delegations, as explained by Euro News. Matteo Bruni, a spokesman for the Vatican, explained, “If other heads of state or government come, they will do so in a personal capacity.”
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, is expected to attend the funeral held for Pope Benedict along with Queen Sofia of Spain and King Philippe of Belgium. Both President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda are also expected to be in attendance.
It was explained by Jean-Pierre that Biden was an avid admirer of Benedict, who he had the pleasure of meeting well over ten years ago.
“So, as the President said in his statement, as I’m sure you saw, he joins Catholics and so many others around the world in mourning the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,” stated Jean-Pierre. “He will always remember the Pope’s generosity and meaningful conversation they had when he visited the Vatican in 2011.”
Biden’s open support for abortion resulted in quite a large level of backlash from his fellow Catholics, including back in September of 2021 when he spoke up to condemn the U.S. Supreme Court for declining to place a stay on a law in Texas which would in effect place a ban on most abortions past six weeks, and last year, after the high court overturned Roe v. Wade.
