Sanders spent about five minutes with the Pope before the pontiff left for Greece. ABC News:
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders met privately with Pope Francis on Saturday at the papal residence in Vatican City... A spokesman for the Vatican confirmed the meeting and said they spoke about foreign policy and climate change before the pontiff headed to the Greek island of Lesbos.
"He is a beautiful man," the presidential hopeful said. "I am not a Catholic, but there is a radiance that comes from him. It was very wonderful to meet him."
His wife, a Catholic, said "the trip was definitely worth it."
Sanders, who often talks about his admiration for the Pope in speeches and his writing, said he believed Pope Francis was "one of the great leaders in modern world history."
Sanders' trip to Rome was paid for by the Sanders campaign.
In other papal news, Pope Francis returned from Greece bringing twelve Syrian refugees with him to Rome.
...the extraordinary sight of the pope himself bringing with him back to Rome -- on his own plane -- three Syrian refugee families to live in the Vatican. It was in part a challenge to other world leaders: Do this.
It confirmed this pope's constantly surprising, deeply disruptive brand of global celebrity: Francis is to many almost a pope gone rogue.
But at heart, it seems, his aim is simply to be with these people, with the unwanted, the desperate, those with no place to turn. He wants to try to remind the world that government leaders, religious leaders, and we, too, must be here in the camps with them, in some form or fashion -- or we damage and degrade our own humanity.
