At G7, Pope Francis will meet privately with President Biden

On the eve of Pope Francis' trip to Bari for the G7, the Vatican published the program for this trip on June 13, 2024, during which the Pontiff is scheduled to speak on artificial intelligence (AI).

The head of the Catholic Church will also take part in a dozen bilateral meetings. Private meetings are scheduled with various heads of state or government: Biden (USA), Macron (France), Zelensky (Ukraine), Lula (Brazil), Modi (India) and Erdogan (Turkey). 

Pope Francis is about to embark on a diplomatic marathon lasting just a few hours. At the age of 87, the Pontiff is traveling to Bari, Italy, as part of the G7 to advocate before heads of state regarding the need for global legislation governing the ethics of artificial intelligence. The Holy See has been working on this issue for years, and the Pope dedicated two major messages to it in January. 

But artificial intelligence won't be the only topic on the agenda for the Pope, who is due to arrive by helicopter on the outskirts of Bari, the capital of Puglia, at 12:30 pm.

Welcomed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Pope will begin a first round of bilateral meetings behind closed doors. After a meeting with the head of the International Monetary Fund, the head of the Catholic Church will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The two men have spoken several times on the phone since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A year ago, Volodymyr Zelensky was received at the Vatican by the Pontiff for some 40 minutes in private. It was a much-publicized audience, during which the two leaders agreed on the “need to continue humanitarian efforts in support of the population.” Afterwards, however, the Ukrainian president showed little enthusiasm for the idea of Vatican mediation, preferring the Holy See to focus on humanitarian diplomacy. 

The meeting between the Pope and the Ukrainian President will take place on the eve of a peace summit in Switzerland on June 15 and 16, a major international event in which Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin will take part. 

Once his meeting with the Ukrainian president is over, Pope Francis will meet Emmanuel Macron. This will be their fifth official meeting. The last was in September, when the Pope visited Marseille for the Rencontres Méditerranéennes.  

During the few minutes of closed-door talks, discussions could focus on peace in Ukraine and Gaza. The French political situation could also feature among the subjects discussed, a Roman source told I.MEDIA. 

Although the French end-of-life bill has been put on hold due to the dissolution of the National Assembly following the European elections, the Pope could express his disappointment at a text that would authorize assisted suicide and euthanasia. On this point, Pope Francis has warned the French president, “We don't play with life.” 

After a fourth scheduled meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who came to the Vatican in May 2017 — Pope Francis will take part in the joint G7 session at 2:15pm, where he will deliver a speech on artificial intelligence. At 5:30pm, a photo will be taken of all the participants, before a second round of bilateral meetings begins for the Pope. 

Pope Francis will first meet William Samoei Ruto, president of Kenya, a country the

pontiff visited in 2015. He will then meet Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, who has just won his country's parliamentary elections. During his visit to the Vatican in October 2021, the Indian leader invited Pope Francis to visit India. The Pope has not yet officially accepted this invitation. 

President Joe Biden will then meet privately with the head of the Catholic Church, who received him in his office at the Vatican in October 2021. Pope Francis is expected to put the issue of peace on the table, as he did in a telephone conversation last October. The United States provides financial and military support to the Israeli and Ukrainian armies. 

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, who visited the Vatican just over a year ago, will meet Pope Francis again for a private meeting. Back in power after the 2022 presidential election, 20 years after his first electoral victory, the Brazilian head of state enjoys a friendly relationship with Pope Francis. 

After President Jair Bolsonaro came to power in 2019, a letter from Francis to Lula leaked to the Brazilian press. “Truth will conquer lies, salvation will conquer condemnation,” wrote the pontiff, expressing his compassion for the Workers' Party leader in the face of the “hard trials” he had undergone both politically and in his family.

The Pope will also have a one-to-one meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Once again, they are expected to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Last October, the two leaders called each other to react to the deadly conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Another subject that could be discussed is the Pope's probable trip to Turkey in 2025, to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. The head of the Catholic Church could visit the Phanar, the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul, and then—together with Patriarch Bartholomew—Iznik, the contemporary name of Nicaea, the city that produced the first Christian Creed. 

Finally, Pope Francis will meet Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who has also been invited to take part in this edition of the G7. Relations between Algeria and the Holy See have always been fraught with tension. No pope has ever visited this country in the Maghreb. Pope Francis' visit for the beatification of the 19 Algerian martyrs was once rumored, but denied by the Holy See in 2018. 

Once this intense diplomatic sequence—unique in Francis' pontificate—is over, he will return by helicopter to the Vatican, where he is due to land at 9.15pm.