President Barack Obama has said his meeting with Pope Francis focused on their agreements, not their divisions.
Mr Obama said the bulk of their nearly hour-long talk focused on the pope’s concerns about income inequality and conflict around the world.
The president said they also discussed immigration reform but he said the pope only briefly mentioned church objections to a birth control mandate under his healthcare law.
Mr Obama said he discussed the Affordable Care Act requirement more later in a meeting with the Vatican secretary of state.
A statement from the Vatican focuses more on areas of dispute, saying topics discussed included abortion and contraception, without mentioning income inequality.
Mr Obama spoke at a news conference with Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi in Rome.
Contraception coverage and religious freedom have been central to the church’s objections to Mr Obama’s healthcare law, which is facing a challenge on those grounds before the Supreme Court.
But Mr Obama said those discussions took place with the Vatican secretary of state Pietro Parolin, not with Francis. “We actually didn’t talk a whole lot about social schisms in my conversations with His Holiness,” he added. “In fact, that really was not a topic of conversation.”
“I was grateful to have the opportunity to speak with him about the responsibilities that we all share to care for the least of these, the poor, the excluded,” Mr Obama said later during the news conference. “And I was extremely moved by his insights about the importance of us all having a moral perspective on world problems and not simply thinking in terms of our own narrow self-interests.”
Obama emerged visibly energised from his audience with the pope, during which he invited Francis to visit the White House.
“It is a great honour. I’m a great admirer,” Mr Obama said after greeting the pope with a slight bow.