President Donald Trump ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half mast in honor of Pope Francis, who died Monday at age 88. Mr. Trump, one of many U.S. political leaders remembering the late pope, called Francis “a good man.”
Speaking to reporters Monday at the White House, Mr. Trump said of Pope Francis: “He was a good man. He worked hard. He loved the world. And it’s an honor to do that.” Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social, “Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!”
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, who met briefly with Pope Francis yesterday at the Vatican, posted a tribute on X, writing that his heart “goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved” Pope Francis. Mr. Vance, who joined the Catholic Church in 2019, also linked to a homily delivered by Pope Francis during the early days of the pandemic, describing it as “really quite beautiful.”
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance had clashed with Pope Francis over their hardline views on immigration.
Francis critiqued Mr. Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, but in May 2017, the pope greeted Mr. Trump during a visit to the Vatican, when the pair reportedly had a good discussion about a number of issues. More recently, however, Francis took the unusual step of writing a letter to U.S. bishops about immigration, in which he called mass deportations like the one being carried out by Mr. Trump “a major crisis.” That letter was interpreted as a rebuke to Mr. Vance, who invoked Catholic social teaching to defend the administration’s handling of immigration.
Mr. Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, also posted a tribute to Pope Francis on social media Monday. Mr. Biden, a Catholic who regularly attends Mass, invoked Pope Francis throughout his presidency, especially in the wake of confrontations with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who criticized Mr. Biden’s support for abortion rights. In 2021, Mr. Biden said that the pope had told him he could continue to receive Communion amid a debate in which some bishops suggested he and other Catholic political leaders who support abortion access should be barred from the sacrament.
Mr. Biden called Francis “a light of faith, hope, and love” in a statement on Monday.
“Pope Francis will be remembered as one of the most consequential leaders of our time and I am better for having known him,” wrote the former president. Mr. Biden highlighted a number of issues championed by the late pope, including the fight for peace, climate change and poverty. “And above all, he was a Pope for everyone. He was the People's Pope - a light of faith, hope, and love,” Mr. Biden wrote.
Another Catholic political leader who also invoked Francis during confrontations with U.S. bishops used similar language to describe the late pope.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi received Communion at a papal Mass during a visit to Rome, when she also met with Pope Francis, despite being banned from the sacrament by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone over her support for abortion rights.
On Monday, Mrs. Pelosi praised Francis, calling him “a beacon of charity, hope and love for all people of faith.”
“Pope Francis personified our sacred responsibility in the Gospel of Matthew to honor the spark of divinity in the least of our brethren—championing the poor, the worker, the refugee and the immigrant,” the former speaker wrote on X. “He reminded us of our inescapable duty to those struggling to escape poverty and persecution in our communities and around the world.”
Ms. Pelosi highlighted the pope’s 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’,” in which he called for a more robust protection of the planet and its resources, praising Francis for writing “with beauty and clarity, with moral force and fierce urgency to call on all of us to be good stewards of God’s Creation.”
Pope Francis visited the United States in 2015, a trip that included a visit to the White House and a papal first: an address to a joint session of Congress.
Former Speaker of the House John Boehner, who hosted that event, praised Francis on Monday, sharing a photo of the pair meeting. Mr. Boehner met privately with Pope Francis during that visit, and the next day announced he would resign his post. In his memoir, Mr. Boehner talked about how hosting Pope Francis was the highlight of his career and gave him the nudge he needed to step aside from politics.
"’Speaker, will you pray for me?’,” Mr. Boehner posted on X on Monday. “With those words, Pope Francis changed my life. He will forever hold a place in America's history as the first Pope to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, and in hearts across the world for his compassionate stewardship of the Church.”
Former President Barack Obama, who hosted the pope for a reception at the White House during his visit to the nation’s capital, called Francis “the rare leader who made us want to be better people.”
“In his humility and his gestures at once simple and profound—embracing the sick, ministering to the homeless, washing the feet of young prisoners—he shook us out of our complacency and reminded us that we are all bound by moral obligations to God and one another,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
