President Joe Biden burst into tears on Friday during a visit to Ireland’s Knock Shrine when he met the chaplain who had administered the final rituals to his late son, Beau.
The emotional moment came when the president was given a tour of the Irish pilgrimage site after Biden learned that retired army chaplain, Father Frank O’Grady, now worked there.
“He cried, it really touched him and then we said a prayer, we said a decade of the rosary for his family,” Father Richard Gibbons said.
“He lit a candle and then took a moment or two of himself for prayer,” Gibbons told the BBC.
President Joe Biden bows his head in front of a plaque bearing his son Beau’s name during his visit to the Mayo Roscommon Hospice in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. He had been moved to tears minutes earlier during a visit to the Knock Shrine, Father Richard Gibbons said, after meeting the chaplain who administered the last rights to his late son, Beau.
“It just so happens that we have the chaplain at work here at the shrine who gave the last rituals, the last anointing, to his son in the United States,” Gibbons told the broadcaster.
“He got the fright of his life when he came over, so that was something very spontaneous that happened,” he said.
He said that when Biden learned he was there, he asked to meet the chaplain.
“He wanted to meet him right away, he sent a Secret Service agent to go find him.
The emotional moment came during a visit where Biden put his hand on the wall where witnesses claimed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the 19th century.
Another event on Biden’s schedule already had a Beau connection: He later attended a hospice where a plaque honors his late son, who died in 2015.
Biden’s Irish sojourn, which was a rolling family reunion interspersed with speeches and meals with political leaders and local officials, brought him to the Shrine of Our Lady Knock on the final day of his four-day journey.
There he stood in front of a huge mosaic depicting the apparition of Mary, along with an altar with the likeness of a lamb and a cross. It was the most outward demonstration of Biden’s Catholic faith in the journey to the land of many of his ancestors.
He was shown around the sanctuary of the basilica by Father Richard Gibbons, the parish priest and rector. He pointed out some artifacts and the Stations of the Cross. The two shared a joke at the altar and laughed heartily.
President Joe Biden touches the original gable wall of the church at the Knock Shrine, with father Richard Gibbons, in County Mayo, Ireland, April 14, 2023. Biden visited the pilgrimage site on the last day of his trip
And then the heavens opened up just as they emerged to see what was left of the old wall where the apparition is said to have appeared. Father Gibbons held an umbrella for the president.
They paused at a square block of the ancient stone so Biden could place his hand on the site of the church’s original gable wall, just as millions of pilgrims have done before him.
Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens and son Hunter, who were with him at every major stop on the trip, were with him, while Biden’s son held an umbrella for his aunt.
It was at the site of the shrine in 1879 where witnesses said they saw the apparition, along with a vision of Joseph and St. John behind their church.
As with other tours of Ireland, a crowd gathered to watch Biden and his motorcade. One of them had a sign reading “Welcome Home Joe.”
Biden landed at Knock Airport Friday afternoon to make a personal pilgrimage to County Mayo on the final day of his visit.
After tracking down some Finnegan family connections on the east side of the island in County Louth, he will visit the region that has family connections in the Blewitt branch of his family tree.
Brian and Father Richard laughed together in front of the mural of the Apparition of Mary
At some point during the visit, the sky opened up, as it has for days
The crowd cheered the president as he drove through County Mayo, where he has his roots
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at the start of his last full day in Ireland. He was joined by son Hunter Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens and top aides
Former Vice President Mike Pence — a potential 2024 rival — has quashed his journey to an ancestral homeland the men share in light of the Pentagon security breach.
“Well, I have to tell you, I’ve been to Ireland, it’s a beautiful place, my grandfather emigrated from Ireland,” Pence said in an interview Friday from his home in Indiana.
But with everything this country is going through: inflation at its highest point in 40 years, struggling Americans, provocation by China, Russia moving in Eastern Europe, I fail to understand that what appears to be a family vacation in Ireland has priority and the president not giving a full press conference,” Pence added.
Biden will visit the Knock Shrine, an Irish pilgrimage site that has been visited by Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis, as well as Mother Teresa.
It is one of many stops where the president will rethink faith and family, a day after addressing the Irish Parliament and speaking at a banquet.
According to the shrine, a heavenly apparition of Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared there in 1879.
Biden, a practicing Catholic, arrived here on Tuesday and has no time for worship in his schedule.
According to local media, he is expected to pray privately there.
He then follows his ancestry trail again, this time with a visit to the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Center.
The area is where Biden’s Blewitt relatives hail from.
As Biden has referenced throughout his journey, his great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt bought the town of Ballina for Scranton during the Great Famine.
It is Ballina who has chosen Biden and his vanguard team for the final speech of his trip. He has scheduled an evening speech outside Saint Muredach Cathedral in County Mayo.
Biden had a more secular day on Thursday when he addressed the Irish parliament
Biden was received at a banquet on the third day of his trip
Biden will speak outside St. Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, County Mayo, shortly before returning to the US.
The president has distant relatives living in the area
Ballina residents prepare for Biden’s visit
It certainly has a picturesque backdrop of the cathedral, situated on the River Moy.
Earlier in his day, which begins around lunchtime, Biden is scheduling a private visit to Mayo Hospice, a center with a plaque bearing the name of his late son Beau, whom Biden referred to during his speech to the Irish general assembly on Thursday.
Biden “turned the sod” there during a groundbreaking 2017.
After his speech, Biden will head back to the US, although he declared “I’m home” during his address to the Irish parliament, in his final declaration of his love for Ireland.
But he’s not ready for the White House just yet. The president plans to spend the weekend at yet another of his homes: his beach house in Delaware.
