President Joe Biden attended Saturday Vigil Mass at St. Patrick's Church a day after telling reporters that Pope Francis told him he should continue to receive Communion despite the opposition of some conservatives in the U.S. upset with his support for abortion rights.
Biden's wife, Jill, accompanied him to the English-speaking church that is the main place of worship for the American Catholic community in Rome and is located near the U.S. Embassy.
Biden stopped at the church in between events at the Group of 20 summit in Rome. He regularly attends Mass in Washington or near his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Among Biden’s gifts to the pope when they met at the Vatican on Friday was a woven chasuble, or liturgical vestment, made in 1930 by the famed papal tailor Gammarelli and used by the pope’s Jesuit order in the U.S., where it was held in the archives of Holy Trinity Church, the president’s regular parish in Washington.
