U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania meet Pope Francis during a private audience at the Vatican, May 24, 2017.POOL/Reuters
Christian pilgrims amassed in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday morning received a double treat in the form of huge video images of U.S. president Donald Trump meeting Pope Francis for the first time, followed by the pope himself holding his regular, open-air prayer session in the square.
But even the pilgrims who support Mr. Trump did not think the meeting between the president and the pope would be anything but stiffly formal, even frosty, given the harsh criticism of each other last year.
Read more: 'We can use peace': Trump and Pope Francis meet
"Trump is so arrogant, what could he and the pope talk about?" said Debra Godwin, a retired pharmaceuticals salesperson from Charlotte, North Carolina, who voted for Mr. Trump. "Trump seems to have his own agenda for everything. He needs to tone it down and just listen to the pope."
Katie Carte, a 22-year-old graduate student in biology from California, said "I just don't see any common ground, though I hope the pope tells Trump to be more open and not close the doors – the United States is a country of immigrants. And I hope the pope sends the message that [man-made] climate change needs to be recognized, but I don't have a lot of faith that Trump will listen."
Mr. Trump and his entourage, including his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Pope Francis at 8:30 a.m. local time at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. Large video screens in St. Peter's Square carried images of their greetings to thousands of pilgrims and tourists.
Mr. Trump and Pope Francis then retreated into a studio for a private meeting. Details of their discussion were not released but two reporters who were allowed to witness the greetings ahead of the private meeting described the mood as "serious," with little chit chat. Mr. Trump told the pope it "was a very great honour" for him to be the Vatican.
After the private meeting, Melania and the rest of the Trump entourage joined Mr. Trump and Pope Francis in the papal library, where the mood seemed to lift. At one point, the pope, speaking to the first lady in Spanish, asked, "What do you feed him?" Melania, wearing a black veil, appeared to answer "pizza" though may have said "potica," a traditional Slovenian desert (she was born in Slovenia).
Gifts were exchanged. Mr. Trump gave the pope books written by the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in 1968. The pope gave Mr. Trump a signed copy of the message he delivered for World Peace day, along with Laudato si, his 2015 encyclical on the need to protect the environment. "I'll be reading them," Mr. Trump said.
The encyclical recognizes the dire threat of climate change. Mr. Trump has threatened to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement, reached in 2015 and ratified by most countries, but has said he will not decide before he meets the Group of Seven leaders, among them prime minister Justin Trudeau, at the G7 summit in Taormina, Sicily, on Friday and Saturday.
It is not know whether Mr. Trump and the hugely popular pope reached common ground in their private meeting, though it seems unlikely the two were confrontational in spite of their clashes during 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. When the two men emerged from their private talk, Mr. Trump told Francis "I won't forget what you said."
The pope last year said someone who thinks about building walls and not bridges is "not Christian," a reference to Mr. Trump's pledge to build a wall along the American-Mexican border. Mr. Trump responded by saying it was "disgraceful" that the pope would question his faith.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump said "if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president."
After the papal audience, Trump was taken on a tour of St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, before going to Rome's Quirinale palace for a meeting with Italian president Sergio Mattarella. Melania Trump was scheduled to visit the Bambino Gesù children's hospital, near the Vatican, while his daughter, Ivanka, was to meet victims of trafficking who are being cared for at the Sant'Egidio community centre in Rome.
Later today, Mr. Trump, who had been on a Middle East tour, is to attend the NATO summit in Brussels before attending the G7 summit in Sicily.
Eric Reguly