As his presidency hangs in the balance back home, the President kicks off his second major foreign trip today with a meeting at the Vatican with Pope Francis

The president’s vehicle pulled to a stop in an interior courtyard of the Vatican at noon local time, and Biden and wife Jill stepped from their limo, which was bearing the flag of the Holy See.

They were greeted by Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, head of Papal Household, and other Vatican officials.

As he went down a receiving line shaking hands, Biden repeatedly said it was “good to be back.” He last visited the Vatican in 2016 for a medical conference.

At one point, he introduced himself saying “I’m Jill’s husband.” And he could be overheard saying “I would have been elected much earlier,” though it wasn’t clear to what he was referring.

This is the standard Vatican protocol, before heading into the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Francis does not live in the Apostolic Palace, but he greets heads of states there because that’s where the papal library is. That area is right on the square.

“When you see the Pope come for the Angelus on a Sunday to his window, those are the papal apartments. That’s where President Biden will be going now,” CNN reporter Delia Gallagher says.

The public’s view of Friday’s highly-anticipated meeting with President Biden and Pope Francis at the Vatican will be more limited than previously anticipated.

The visit has been clouded by severe restrictions on press coverage — independent journalists will not be allowed to see the two men meeting at all, and no live pictures of the Pope greeting Biden will be transmitted.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni gave no explanation for the last-minute change.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vatican has not admitted journalists to be present for the beginning of the Pope’s meetings with heads of state, a practice which has been common for years at the Vatican. Despite a formal letter of complaint from the Vatican press corps, the Vatican has yet to reinstate journalist pools at papal meetings. 

The Vatican has also canceled the planned live broadcast of the Pope’s meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, due to take place just before the meeting with President Biden.

White House Correspondents Association President Steven Portnoy said in a statement that the association “joins Vatican reporters in expressing our disappointment that the world won’t see live pictures of President Biden’s meeting with Pope Francis.”

“The White House told us the bilateral meeting would involve Biden and Francis discussing substantive matters of global significance ‘including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis, and caring for the poor.’ Such an international news event demands independent coverage,” Portnoy said.

President Biden has arrived at the Vatican for a highly symbolic meeting with Pope Francis. 

His motorcade arrived at St. Peter’s Square just before noon local time (6 a.m. ET). 

Biden is the second Catholic US president, and his talks with Francis come with deep personal and political stakes.

The visit has been clouded by severe restrictions on press coverage. Independent journalists will not be allowed to see the two men meeting at all, and no live pictures of the Pope greeting Biden will be transmitted. 

President Biden is scheduled to meet the Pope in a matter of minutes. The highly-anticipated meeting at the Vatican will be limited to public view.

The Vatican said Thursday it had canceled a planned live broadcast of the meeting but will still distribute video of some parts of the arrival and greeting with the Pope following the meeting.

Stay with us for updates on their meeting.

World leaders attending the G20 summit in Rome must address vaccine inequality, a group of former presidents, prime ministers and global figures said on Friday.  

The group has urged Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi — who is hosting this weekend’s summit — to address the “catastrophic market and moral failure” of unfair coronavirus vaccine distribution. 

The letter, written by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and signed by 100 others highlighted gross disparities in vaccine equity, saying that only 5% of Africa is fully vaccinated.

Signatories to the letter included former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Nobel prize winners and former leaders of Pakistan, Canada and the Netherlands.

The letter said that the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada will stock a surplus of 240 million unused doses by the end of October. With military assistance, “these could be airlifted immediately to countries most in need.” 

Signatories also called on the World Bank to make additional finance available to support vaccine rollouts in low-income countries.  

“Vaccine inequity constitutes a threat to us all,” they said. “Just as one cannot put out half a fire and be safe from the fire, so are we all not safe until everyone is safe.” 

Today’s meeting will be the fourth between Biden and the Pope meet, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday, noting the two have also exchanged letters.

“They will have a chance just to reflect, each of them, on their view of what’s happening in the world, policy issues,” Sullivan said at a White House press briefing.

Biden and the Pope are expected to discuss climate change, migration and income inequality, among other issues, according to Sullivan.

The last time President Joe Biden visited the Vatican, he was still reeling from the loss of his son Beau to cancer a year earlier.

The reason for his 2016 visit was the Third International Regenerative Medicine Conference, and — in a speech delivered with a massive bronze sculpture of the Resurrection as his backdrop — Biden made an impassioned call for developing new cures for the disease that took his son’s life.

But he also recalled a moment of kindness from his host, Pope Francis, who visited the United States in the months following Beau’s death and gathered with Biden’s extended family as he departed the states from the Philadelphia International Airport.

“We had just lost my son,” Biden said at the start of his speech. “And he met with my extended family in the hangar behind where the aircraft was. And I wish every grieving parent, brother, sister, mother, father, would have the benefit of his words, his prayers, his presence. He provided us with more comfort that even he, I think, will understand.”

Biden returns to the Vatican on Friday to meet a Pope who has provided both familial comfort and ideological inspiration to a President whose faith has long underpinned his public and private lives.

The visit is expected to touch on their personal relationship as Catholics and other key world issues, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday. And their issues-related discussion is expected to address climate, migration and income inequality — major areas of consensus among both men.

Read more about Biden’s relationship with the Pope here.

The Vatican said Thursday it has canceled a planned live broadcast of President Biden meeting Pope Francis, due to take place Friday morning. 

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni gave no explanation for the last-minute change but told CNN that President Biden’s arrival in the Vatican courtyard, where he will be greeted by a Vatican monsignor, will be broadcast. The Vatican will distribute video of some parts of the arrival and greeting with the Pope following the meeting, according to Bruni.

The Vatican’s television coverage would normally also include the President and his entourage walking through the corridors of the Vatican, the President shaking hands with the Pope and sitting down at his desk for the beginning of the meeting. Coverage is usually provided at the end of the meeting for an exchange of gifts between the Pope and the President.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vatican has not admitted journalists to be present for the beginning of the Pope’s meetings with heads of state, a practice which has been common for years at the Vatican. Despite a formal letter of complaint from the Vatican press corps, the Vatican has yet to reinstate journalist pools at papal meetings.  

The Vatican has also cancelled the planned live broadcast of the Pope’s meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, due to take place just before the meeting with President Biden.

Pope Francis has called on world leaders to seize the opportunity to more effectively tackle the global climate crisis at COP, urging them to give “concrete hope” to future generations that the threat is being taken seriously.

Speaking in a message broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day” segment Friday, the leader of the Catholic Church said everyone must play “our own part in changing the collective response to the unprecedented threat of climate change.”

The Pope said that climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic have “exposed our deep vulnerability and raised numerous doubts and concerns about our economic systems and the way we organize our societies.”

“These crises present us with the need to take radical decisions that are not always easy,” he said, adding that difficult moments like these “present opportunities that we must not waste.”

While underlining a sense of urgency that global leaders must take, the Pope also struck a hopeful note, saying that “humanity has never before had at its disposal so many means” for achieving these goals.

Pope Francis will not be attending COP26 summit in Glasgow this weekend.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Jeremy Diamond that there is still no date set for a virtual face-to-face meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping and wouldn’t comment on whether the White House believed it was a mistake for Xi not to attend the G20 Summit this week in Rome.

Asked by CNN if it was a mistake for Xi not to attend, Sullivan said he wouldn’t characterize Xi’s decision making.

Sullivan added that “in an era of intense competition between the US and China, intense diplomacy, leader level diplomacy is vital to effectively managing this relationship.”