Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters that he met with the pope for a brief time and that it was a “real honor.”
The Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate is in Rome for a conference on economic inequality and climate change. The meeting, not previously scheduled, took place before Pope Francis headed to Greece to address the migrant crisis in that country, the Associated Press reported.
“We had an opportunity to meet with him this morning,” Sanders, who is Jewish, told reporters. “It was a real honor for me, for my wife and I to spend some time with him. I think he is one of the extraordinary figures not only in the world today but in modern world history.”
Sanders told CBS News Saturday that “beauty” “resonated” from Pope Francis.
“We chose not to do pictures,” Sanders told a CBS reporter in response to a question. “We didn’t want anyone to think this was political.”
“If I was really being political, I’d be in New York City right now and not in Rome,” Sanders said. “For me, the issues that the Pope is talking about are issues that I’ve been talking about for many, many years.”
The meeting comes days before the pivotal New York primary, with polling showing Sanders behind Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Pope Francis has gotten involved in the 2016 race before. In February on his way back from visiting Mexico, he said that it wasn’t Christian to build walls, a remark that seemed aimed at GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who has vowed to build a wall along the Mexican border.
