Kerry told Reuters that he found Pope Francis to be “in great spirits and in great form” following the pope’s nine-day stay in the hospital to recover from surgery to repair an incisional hernia.
“I found the pope to be very much the pope that I have had the privilege of seeing several times over the last years. He was strong. He was clear. He seemed in very good form and good spirits,” he said.
Kerry, a baptized Catholic, previously met Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2014 and 2016, when he served as U.S. Secretary of State during the Obama administration, and in 2021 ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
The U.S. special presidential envoy for climate called Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ on care for our common home a “major and important turning point” and thanked the pope for continuing “to sound the alarm” about climate change.
U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly joined Kerry for the Vatican meeting, which also included a meeting with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on June 19.
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