Mike Pence to meet Pope Francis in Vatican next week

Washington D.C., Jan 16, 2020 / 14:00 pm

Vice President Mike Pence will travel to the Vatican next week to meet with Pope Francis.

Pence's office confirmed with CNA on Thursday that the Vice President is scheduled to be received by the Pope during his overseas trip next week. No details have yet been released about the topics that might be discussed at the meeting.

The Vice President's visit comes immediately after the U.S. religious freedom ambassador traveled to Vatican City for the launch of the Abrahamic Faiths Initiative, held on Tuesday at the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Callista Gingrich.

Sam Brownback, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, was present at Tuesday's opening session of the initiative, which was described by Ambassador Gingrich as "a dialogue designed to promote peace, religious freedom, and interreligious harmony" between Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

It was inspired, she said, by the 2019 document on "Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together," a joint statement of Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi that was signed in the United Arab Emirates.

That document, in part, stated that "[t]he pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings."

Cardinal Miguel Ayuso, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, was present at the gathering, according to Gingrich's remarks.

"It's fitting that your discussions should take place at the Pontifical Gregorian University," Gingrich said, citing St. John Henry Newman that a Catholic university should "aid in the discernment of truth."

Quoting Pope Francis, Gingrich stated the questions that could be considered by the initiative: "'How do we look after each other?  'How do we nourish a fraternity which is not theoretical, but translates into authentic fraternity?' And 'how can religions be channels of fraternity, rather than barriers of separation?'"

In her remarks at the launch, Gingrich thanked Pastor Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas, Imam Mohammad Magid of All Dulles Area Muslim Society, and Rabbi David Saperstein, the former U.S. religious freedom ambassador from 2014 to 2017, "for making this gathering possible."

During Brownback's trip, he and Ambassador Gingrich also met with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See Secretary for Relations with States.