Sanders: I ‘Could Not Refuse’ Vatican Trip Even If It Took Me Off 2016 Trail

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was unapologetic about his decision to take a day off the presidential campaign trail to deliver a speech Friday in Vatican City, telling reporters he could “simply not refuse” an invitation to visit Pope Francis’ seat.

“The pope has played a historical and an incredible role in trying to create a new world economy and a new vision for the people of our planet,” Sanders told reporters outside the Vatican walls. “What he is saying is that we cannot continue to go forward when so few have so much and when greed is such a destructive force not only in the United States, of course, but throughout this world.”

The Vermont senator delivered a 10-minute speech to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on the imperative of alleviating income inequality. The speech wasn’t broadcast, but his presidential campaign posted the prepared remarks online.

Sanders’ remarks came on the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus encyclical, which called for a global economy that prioritized dignity and social justice.

The senator’s decision to travel to Rome in the midst of a key primary race in his home state of New York raised eyebrows among political analysts, particularly since he would not have the opportunity to meet with Pope Francis.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombadi confirmed to the New York Times that “there won’t be a meeting with the Holy Father.”

But Sanders, who shares the Pope’s priorities of reckoning with climate change and income inequality, said the invitation to visit a Francis-occupied Vatican was too “moving” an opportunity to pass up.

“Yeah, I know it’s it’s taking me away from the campaign trail for a day,” Sanders said. “But when I received this information, it was so moving to me that it was something that I could just simply not refuse to attend.”