Pope Francis spoke on the phone with Biden to congratulate him

“The president-elect thanked His Holiness for extending his blessings and congratulations,” they said from Biden’s office.

Pope Francis spoke on the phone with US President-elect Joe Biden, the second Catholic to arrive at the White House after John F. Kennedy, to offer him his “congratulations and blessings,” the future president’s transition team reported. . democratic.

“The president-elect thanked His Holiness for extending his blessings and congratulations to him and noted his appreciation for His Holiness’s leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation and the common bonds of humanity around the world,” according to the statement. released. from Biden’s office this Thursday 12-N.

Biden “expressed a desire to work together on the basis of a shared belief in the dignity and equality of all humanity on issues such as caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the climate change crisis and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees in our communities “.

Barack Obama’s former Vice President, 77, is the second Catholic elected to the US Presidency after John F. Kennedy in 1960.

During a tense election campaign against President Donald Trump, Biden quoted Pope John Paul II, often invoked his Irish Catholic roots, and vowed to “restore the soul of America” ​​after four years of deep division.

The president-elect regularly wears a rosary that belonged to his son Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

Pope Francis himself has had tense relations with Trump. In early 2019, he called the Republican tycoon’s wall project on the US-Mexico border “insane.”

In February 2016, when Trump was trying to become his party’s presidential candidate, the Pope said on a visit to Mexico that someone who thinks of building walls instead of bridges “is not a Christian.”

Trump responded with an offensive statement at the time: “It is a sin for a religious leader to question a person’s faith,” he said.

In 2015, Pope Francis met with then Vice President Biden in Washington when the Supreme Pontiff delivered a speech on the United States Capitol before the full Congress.