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At Vatican, Biden finds common cause with pope on cancer (w/video)

 
Pope Francis greets Vice President Joe Biden at a conference on regenerative medicine Friday at the Vatican. Biden urged more funding and information-sharing to “end cancer as we know it.”
Pope Francis greets Vice President Joe Biden at a conference on regenerative medicine Friday at the Vatican. Biden urged more funding and information-sharing to “end cancer as we know it.”
Published April 30, 2016

VATICAN CITY — Vice President Joe Biden found common cause with Pope Francis for a global commitment to fund cancer research.

Biden spoke at a conference on regenerative medicine at the Vatican on Friday and ended up sharing the stage with the pope, who used his own speech to decry a profit-driven medical research system. With light streaming through stained glass into an ornate auditorium, the pope called for empathy for the sick and communal guarantees that all have access to care.

"Research, whether in academia and industry, requires unwavering attention to moral issues if it is to be an instrument which safeguards human life and the dignity of the person," the pope said.

As he has done several times before, the pope gave voice to the moral argument behind a cause that Biden and President Barack Obama have sought to elevate, helping to skewer traditional partisan divides that tend to overtake political issues in the United States. The Obama administration has turned to this pope for support on climate change, poverty, rapprochement with Cuba and refugees.

For Biden, the stately corridors and costumed Swiss Guards of Vatican City were an about-face from the scene just hours earlier, when the vice president visited Iraq on an unannounced visit. In Iraq, Biden worked to smooth over deep sectarian tensions threatening Iraq's political system; at the Holy See, he appealed for all religions to see defeating cancer as a means to express values of faith, love and hope.

Biden told the scientists, researchers and Catholic leaders that as he met with Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders in Iraq the day before, each had wanted to talk about one thing: the pope.

"I think that's a pretty incredible thing," Biden said.

Biden, who lost a son to cancer last year, called cancer a "constant emergency" for the planet and urged philanthropists, corporations and governments to increase funding and information-sharing in a bid to "end cancer as we know it."

"Cancer's not a national problem, it's an international problem," Biden said.

Before taking the stage, the pope greeted Biden privately in a room backstage, where the two exchanged small tokens, the White House said.

Last year, Biden's eldest son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died from brain cancer after his family's hopes of a last-minute medical breakthrough fell short. Months later, his father declared a "moonshot" to cure cancer when he announced he wouldn't run for president.

Since then, Joe Biden has launched a task force with Obama's blessing and the White House asked Congress for $1 billion over two budget years for research. Only a fraction has been approved so far.