President Joe Biden has announced twice that he will not be attending the funeral of Pope Benedict the 16th this coming Friday.

Because Joe Biden says he is a devout Catholic. He's a practicing Catholic and he has stated through his press secretary and also in a short interview that he will not be attending.

Now I've been talking about this all week and I think it's now manifest that the Vatican itself led by Pope Francis in my opinion in my observation and I'll be on Newsmax tonight talking about it is that they're trying to make this into a second class funeral.

They don't want there to be attention on Pope Benedict. They're ashamed of Pope Benedict. They're embarrassed by Pope Benedict as I've been saying now for years and now it's especially the case they're going to try to make and they already are trying the media to make Pope Benedict the scapegoat for everything wrong in the church.

One reason we know that the Vatican and Pope Francis are de-emphasizing this funeral is that it is not going to be a state funeral. Let me repeat that.

The Vatican has not invited the heads of state to this funeral. Only two heads of state have been invited to the funeral of Pope Benedict 16. That is those of Germany, his homeland and Italy where he served as Pope.

Now there are about 15, maybe 20 nations who are going to send delegates but they will not be at the funeral in their official capacities because they were not invited in that way.

I think that might be part of the controversy. I'm going to run the clip now and you're going to see it. I think that might be part of the controversy of why Biden has said he's not going. They're making it sound like Pope Benedict didn't want Biden to come.

Again, I think this is all part of the play to downplay and denigrate the legacy of Pope Ben the 16th. I want to know if you agree if you're in the live chat or leave a comment below, I will be doing some Q&A and engaging y'all in the live chat.

I'm going to run the clip from the press secretary. This is Ms Jean Pierre and she doesn't know how to say the word emeritus. She says emeritus, I believe. But you know what she means. So here we go.

As the president said in his statement, as I'm sure you saw, he joins Catholics and so many others around the world in mourning the passing of Pope emeritus Benedict 16th. He will always remember the Pope's generosity and meaningful conversation they had when he visited the Vatican in 2011.

So to answer your question, the US ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly will represent the United States at the funeral of the Pope in line with the wishes of the late Pope and the Vatican. This is what this is what their requests were. This is what their wishes were. And so that's what you'll see from the US.

As the president said, she's saying that it's in line with what the late Pope desired and with the Vatican. Now I find it odd that Pope Benedict the 16th would say, I don't want Joe Biden to come to my funeral.

I'm just thinking that's not the case. What's going on here is they're making it a non-state funeral and we have to ask the question, why? It's the death of a Pope.

It's a death of a man who served the church.

I mean, we have state funerals for presidents who have long since left the White House. Just because he's a Pope as she says, Emma Rites, who doesn't know how to say the word emeritus.

I guess I can't talk. I miss pronounced Italian words all the time, although she's an English speaker. So it gets a little bit more because then Pope Benedict was confronted and asked about this. Now the audio is really bad here.

I could play it for you, but there's a helicopter in the background. I can't understand it. Maybe I should try to play it. You want me to play it? Let's try it. Let's see if this works.

This is president Biden. And if you're listening on the audio, it's really not going to make a lot of sense. Let's see if this works here.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Here it is. I'm going to play the sound. So you can hear the helicopter. So basically the reporter here. I don't know who the reporter is says, you're not attending Pope Benedict 16th,

tomorrow, though. Why? And Joe Biden says, well, why do you think? And the reporter says, you tell me. And then Joe Biden says, you know why? I don't know what that means. Here we go.

Listen to it over the airplane or the helicopter noise. You're not attending a general.

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