--- title: Pope Francis to Meet Privately With John Boehner description: Pope Francis will have a private one-on-one meeting with House Speaker John Boehner when the Pope visits Washington, D.C. canonical: https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-09T20:40:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:27.713Z article:section: Politics og:title: Pope Francis to Meet Privately With John Boehner og:description: The House Speaker has wanted a pope to visit the Capitol for a long time og:url: https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt344e56b7b319d0d1/698862852dce0173c79e566b/pope-francis21.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Pope Francis og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pope Francis to Meet Privately With John Boehner twitter:description: The House Speaker has wanted a pope to visit the Capitol for a long time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt344e56b7b319d0d1/698862852dce0173c79e566b/pope-francis21.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pope Francis to Meet Privately With John Boehner > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: 2013 Person of the Year: Pope Francis Reimagines the Papacy [Watch (HLS stream): 2013 Person of the Year: Pope Francis Reimagines the Papacy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aYRnrfUV.m3u8) (3:30)  _Published 2013-12-11. From his comments on gays to his penchant for Twitter, Pope Francis's every move has garnered strong reactions from the world media._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 9, 2015 8:40 PM UTC  Pope Francis waves as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for an audience with thousands of altar servers from around Europe on August 4, 2015 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis waves as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for an audience with thousands of altar servers from around Europe on August 4, 2015 in Vatican City, Vatican. Franco Origlia—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 9, 2015 8:40 PM UTC Pope Francis will have a private one-on-one meeting with House Speaker John Boehner when the Pope visits Washington, D.C. this month. After the Sept. 24 meeting, Congress leaders will join Boehner in welcoming the Pope before he[ addresses a joint session of Congress](http://www.popefrancisvisit.com/schedule/address-to-joint-meeting-of-congress/). Boehner is one of the highest-ranking Catholic politicians in the U.S. aside from Vice President Joe Biden. As [Politico reports](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/john-boehner-pope-francis-visit-washington-213454), Boehner has been trying to get a pope to visit Capitol Hill for more than 20 years. Pope Francis is expected to speak for about 20 minutes to Congress. Lots of planning has gone into his trip, reportedly including a recent [practice run](http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/john-boehner-pope-francis-visit-washington-213454) of his visit involving more than 100 people at the Capitol. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/"},"headline":"Pope Francis to Meet Privately With John Boehner","datePublished":"2015-09-09T20:40:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:41:27.713Z","description":"The House Speaker has wanted a pope to visit the Capitol for a long time","url":"https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/","keywords":["Congress","Pope Francis","John Boehner","meeting","faith","Visit"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt344e56b7b319d0d1/698862852dce0173c79e566b/pope-francis21.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt344e56b7b319d0d1/698862852dce0173c79e566b/pope-francis21.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis","caption":"Pope Francis","creditText":"Franco Origlia—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/","name":"Pope Francis to Meet Privately With John Boehner"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"2013 Person of the Year: Pope Francis Reimagines the Papacy","description":"From his comments on gays to his penchant for Twitter, Pope Francis's every move has garnered strong reactions from the world media.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aYRnrfUV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-11T12:42:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aYRnrfUV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/","duration":"PT3M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4028127/pope-francis-john-boehner-meeting/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```