The first meeting of Pope Francis and President Trump may take place this May, during the G7 world leaders summit.
The White House confirmed yesterday that President Trump would be attending the G7 meeting of world leaders in Sicily. Diplomatic sources say that Trump will meet Pope Francis during this time, The Tablet reports.
"This visit gives the president an opportunity to meet the Pope," one inside source said. "And if he came to Italy without seeing Francis it would be seen as a snub, particularly given their earlier clashes over migration. Trump also sees that wherever you sit on the political spectrum attacking the papacy isn't wise."
The G7 summit runs from May 26-27 in Taormina, Sicily. A meeting between the President and the Pope is made more likely by the fact that both Trump's predecessors, Barack Obama and George W Bush, used G8 summits in Italy as opportunites to have their initial meetings with pontiffs. The Holy See has not yet made any official comment on the matter.
Trump and Francis already have some tense history. During the presidential campaign, Pope Francis said of Trump: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel".
Trump, who had once said that Francis "seems like a pretty good guy", called the Pope's disparaging of his faith "disgraceful". He warned him: "if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS...I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened."
After Trump's election, Pope Francis said that he would "wait and see" how Trump acts as President before judging him, but simultaneously warned of the threat of populist authoritarian figures.
