President Joe Biden went toe-to-toe with the Pope on Friday, caressing Pope Francis during a full day of meetings at the G7 in Italy.
The close meeting between the Pope and the nation’s second Catholic president came at the end of a meeting on Artificial Intelligence, where the Pope gave a 20-minute speech warning about the risks and promises of the new technology, while defending politics in a room full of beleaguered elected officials.
“We need politics,” the pope said during his 20-minute speech, which he joked was the shorter version of the two he brought with him.
It came after the pontiff made a dramatic entrance by helicopter near the sleepy Adriatic town of Borgo Egnazia for the annual leaders’ meeting.
Biden and the Pope have established a personal relationship, US Ambassador to the Vatican Joe Donnelly told DailyMail.com ahead of Biden’s meeting on Thursday night, hours before the meeting.
“These two love each other,” he said. Donnelly said he saw the pope last week and the pontiff took him aside to say, “Say hi to the president for me.”
During their last meeting, in 2021, the Pope asked first lady Jill Biden to pray for him, and the two men often smiled when they were together.
Face to face: President Joe Biden approached Pope Francis before the pontiff spoke about Artificial Intelligence at the G7 in Italy
Biden also used the earlier Vatican meeting to regale the Pope with some old Biden stories, handing him a challenge coin and joking about which of them would buy the drinks at their next meeting.
“You are the greatest warrior for peace I have ever met,” Biden told Francis.
The Pope appeared ready to lend some support to the group of embattled politicians who joined him at a huge roundtable in Italy on Friday. He began jokingly saying that he had two versions of his speech, then opted for the shorter one, which the Argentine delivered in Italian.
He thanked the “presidents, kings, everyone who is here with us today” and stood in front of Biden. He cited the “profound ethical challenges” of AI and expressed fear of “a culture of dismissing others.”
“No machine should ever decide to take the life of a human being,” he said, according to a simultaneous translation, amid advances in the military applications of this technology. “No innovation is neutral,” she said.
Biden and other world leaders were eager to get closer to Pope Francis during his visit. At one point, photographers yelled at Argentine President Javier Milei to get out of the way after he blocked the shot of Biden greeting the Pope.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni greets Pope Francis as he attends the G7 Summit at the Borgo Egnazia resort.
Meloni was also present to greet the Pope when he arrived by helicopter to the summit and landed in Savelletri.
Meloni walks with the cape in a golf cart to the event site.
The Pope concluded by telling the assembled politicians that there was “corruption” and “inefficiency” among some politicians, but defended the vocation in general.
‘How can the world function without politics?’ she asked. ‘Can you find an effective path to universal brotherhood and social peace without good politics?
“We need politics,” he continued. ‘And this reminds me of what a Pope said about politics. It is the highest form of charity.
Biden’s meeting with the Pope was closed to the press.
A senior administration official noted that they had a “very warm hug when the Pope arrived at the AI session,” but could not discuss what was said privately.
Another senior administration official who briefed reporters in advance reviewed the important topics they were likely to discuss.
Among them were the Middle East and the war in Gaza, climate change and issues of ‘great concern and interest’ to the Pope and the US.
“And I’ll just say about AI: I think we are interested in the responsible use of artificial intelligence, preserving human dignity and human rights,” the official said.
One topic he did not mention is the personal struggles Biden must endure and navigate as he seeks re-election at age 81 and encounters family difficulties. His son Hunter was convicted of three felony firearms charges days before the trip.