President Barack Obama will meet with Pope Francis for the first time on March 27 at the Vatican , the White House announced Tuesday . Obama 's visit with the leader of the Roman Catholic Church will be part of a larger European trip that the President will take that month . `` The President looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality , '' a White House news release said . Obama raised the Pope 's stance on inequality in an economic address in December . `` Across the developed world , inequality has increased , '' Obama said . `` Some of you may have seen just last week , the Pope himself spoke about this at eloquent length . 'How can it be , ' he wrote , 'that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure , but it is news when the stock market loses two points ? ' `` U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters last week -- after his own visit with the Vatican 's secretary of state -- that Obama would soon meet with Francis . But Kerry did not specify when . New Yorker profile shows a weathered Obama five years in . Obama met Francis ' predecessor , Benedict XVI , in 2009 . That meeting , which took place at the Vatican , was Obama 's only meeting with a Pope . Obama will start his trip on March 24 in the Netherlands , where he will attend the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague and meet with Dutch officials . He then will go to Brussels , Belgium , for a March 26 summit with the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission , and also will visit with the NATO secretary general and Belgian officials , the White House said . Additionally , Obama will meet with Italy 's Prime Minister and President in Rome . Obama 's presidency has been marked by some high-profile clashes with the Catholic Church , including over abortion and contraception . But Francis ' approach to world economic issues is widely seen as more in line with Obama 's own approach than that of Benedict , who stepped down last year . In an MSNBC interview last year , Obama called Francis an `` extraordinarily thoughtful and soulful messenger of peace and justice . '' `` I have n't had a chance to meet him yet , '' Obama said . `` But everything that I 've read , everything that I 've seen from him , indicates the degree to , to which he is trying to remind us of those core obligations . '' U.N. committee on sexual abuse grills Vatican officials .
President Obama and the Pope will discuss poverty and inequality , the European Council says . The visit will be the first between the two . Obama met with Francis ' predecessor , Benedict XVI , in just last week . The President will also to visit the Netherlands and Netherlands .