the president acknowledged that Francis

On U.S. domestic issues, the president acknowledged that Francis, born in Argentina, underscored the urgent need for immigration reform. Obama said the pope,
as someone from Latin America, is particularly mindful of the plight of immigrants and the tragedy of family separations.
“I described to him how I thought there was an opportunity to make this right and get something passed” on immigration reform, Obama said.
In a statement, the Vatican called the meeting “cordial” and said that “views were exchanged on some current international themes, and it was hoped that,
in areas of conflict, there would be respect for humanitarian and international law and a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” a possible
reference to the crisis in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The statement also said that the leaders discussed “questions of particular relevance” to the Catholic Church in the United States, “such as the exercise
of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection, as well as the issue of immigration reform.”
Obama, who although not Catholic has religious roots in the social gospel embraced by this first non-European pope, is pushing at home for a higher minimum
wage, education spending to increase economic opportunity and changes in the tax code that would draw more money from the wealthy.
His political popularity, though, is wobbling. An AP-GfK poll this week showed that 59 percent of respondents disapprove of the way he is handling his job, a
rating that is among the highest of his presidency.
“He is going mostly to bask in the glow of the new pope,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former adviser on
Europe in the State Department earlier in Obama’s tenure.