Vatican Cancels Live Broadcast of Biden Meeting Pope
Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images.
The Vatican has canceled its live broadcast of President Joe Biden greeting Pope Francis.
The Holy See press office has not provided an explanation for the cancelation of the broadcast ahead of Biden’s meeting with Francis on Friday as part of his five-day trip to Europe that also includes stopping in Rome for the G20 and in Scotland for a U.N. climate change conference.
According to the Associated Press:
The Vatican said it would provide edited footage of the encounter after the fact to accredited media.
Biden, the second Catholic U.S. president, has met Francis three previous times, but this will be his first as president.
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The Vatican has provided live television coverage for the visits of major heads of state for years and had scheduled such coverage Friday for Biden and before him, for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is also in Rome for a Group of 20 meeting this weekend.
Live broadcasts are particularly important because the Vatican hasn’t allowed independent photographers and journalists into papal audiences since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vatican has continued to cite the pandemic as a reason to deny external media access to the beginnings and ends of papal audiences with visiting leaders, even though they are allowed into other papal events.
It is during those moments in the pope’s library that reporters can view the gifts that are exchanged, watch as the formal photograph is taken and overhear remarks as the leaders arrive and depart to get a sense of how the pope and his guest have gotten along. Only the pope’s official photographer and Vatican video journalists are now allowed in.
The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the White House press corps in negotiating with the White House on press coverage and other press-related matters, condemned the Vatican decision to not air live Francis receiving Biden.
Reporters have been covering the papal audiences of American presidents since Woodrow Wilson sat w/Benedict I in January 1919. Most recently, members of our WH press corps helped bring the world pictures of Francis’s mtgs with Obama & Trump.
— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) October 28, 2021
The WH told us the bilateral meeting would involve Biden & Francis discussing substantive matters of global significance “including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor.” Such an international news event demands independent coverage.
— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) October 28, 2021
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