Biden Gets Personal When Asked About His Relationship With the Pope, Praises Him As ‘A Fine, Decent, Honorable Man’

President Joe Biden got personal in Rome on Sunday when a reporter asked him about his meeting with Pope Francis last week, praising him as “a fine, decent, honorable man” and reminiscing about the comfort the pontiff gave the Biden family after the death of the president’s son Beau Biden.

Biden, joined by First Lady Jill Biden, visited with Pope Francis on Friday. The president gave the pope a challenge coin from Beau Biden’s Army National Guard unit, cracked some very Biden-esque jokes, and also discussed the debate within American Catholic Churches over whether or not to deny communion to Catholics in elected office who support a legal right to abortion.

Their meeting was closed to the press, but the Vatican did release edited video clips of their conversation. The discussion about abortion issues was not included in the clips they released, but Biden told White House pool reporters that Pope Francis had called him a “good Catholic” and encouraged him to keep receiving communion.

Sunday, Biden spoke to reporters after the G-20 summit and a reporter asked the president what it meant to hear the pope, “in the middle of this debate, call you a ‘good Catholic’ and if what the pope said to him should “put this debate to rest.”

“A lot of this is just personal,” Biden replied, describing Pope Francis as “someone who has provided great solace for my family when my son died.”

Biden noted there had “always been this debate in the Catholic Church going back to Pope John XXIII to talk about how we reach out and embrace people with differences,” and mentioned how Pope Francis’ response shortly after he became pope to a question about homosexuality was to say “who am I to judge?”

Pope Francis, Biden continued, was “a man of great empathy,” who “understands that part of his Christianity is to reach out and to forgive.”

“And so I just find my relationship with him one that I personally take great solace in,” said Biden. “He is a really truly genuine decent man.”

Biden also expressed his gratitude to the members of the press who had expressed their condolences with him “when I lost a real part of my soul, when I lost my Beau, my son.”

He and his family “will never forget” the kindness Pope Francis showed in the aftermath of Beau Biden’s death, the president said. He mentioned how the pope had been in the U.S. just a few days later to meet with then-President Barack Obama and visit churches here, and had invited Biden to accompany him to visit a seminary in Philadelphia.

Pope Francis had asked if he could meet with Biden’s family, and they met up in a hangar at the Philadelphia airport.

Biden described his grief was “wounds” that were “still raw,” and how he and his family were comforted by the pontiff’s words, noting that he spent “a considerable amount of time, 10-15 minutes,” talking about Beau, “and he didn’t just generically talk about him,” but “knew about him.”

“It had such a cathartic impact on his children and my wife on our family,” said Biden, and “meant a great deal.”

“I don’t want to talk more about it because so much of it is personal,” said Biden, describing the pope as “a man who is someone who is looking to establish peace and decency and honor” and “everything I learned about Catholicism” since he was a child.

“I have great respect for people who have other religious views,” Biden concluded, but Pope Francis was “just a fine, decent, honorable man, and we keep in touch.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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