Biden: 'All of us who loved Pope Francis need to step up'

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Former President Joe Biden mourned the passing of Pope Francis in an opinion piece for USA Today published April 28, calling for people to honor the late pontiff by "making his legacy a living legacy. A living faith. A faith of caring and compassion -- and mercy."

Biden and former first lady Jill Biden attended the April 26 funeral for Pope Francis, who died April 21 at age 88. Among the last acts of his presidency, Biden, the nation's second Catholic president, awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Biden wrote in USA Today that the papal funeral was a chance to reflect on Pope Francis, on "his mission, his ministry, his life's work."

Biden said Pope Francis "was a pope for our time, when so many leaders embraced cruelty."

"He stood for compassion," Biden wrote. "When so many casually embraced lies. He stood for truth. When so many saw the climate as an imagined problem. He saw it as an existential crisis. When so many treated the climate as a political matter. He knew it was a moral imperative. And when so many practiced the politics of dehumanization, he stood for our common humanity."

Citing Pope Francis' statement in 2013 that "a little mercy makes the world less cold and more just," Biden wrote that he fears "with his (Pope Francis') passing, the world will be colder and less just."

"Which means that all of us who loved Francis need to step up," Biden wrote. "Francis wasn't the only one chosen by God's mercy. We all were. When we remember that, we will see that mercy isn't weakness. There is no greater strength."

During his presidency, Biden was at odds with the U.S. bishops over his administration's abortion policy, but won some bishops' praise on refugee and climate-related policies, as well as mixed responses to his policies on immigration.

When some U.S. bishops suggested Biden should be denied Communion due to his public support for abortion, Biden later said that Pope Francis said he should continue to partake in the Eucharist. However, in a 2022 interview, Pope Francis also called Biden's support for legal abortion an "incoherence."

Biden last met with Pope Francis at the Group of Seven summit in Puglia, Italy, June 14, where they had a "brief private bilateral meeting," according to Catholic News Service. In one of his last acts as president, Biden commuted 37 of 40 existing federal death sentences -- a cause that gained the attention of the late pope.