Biden stops at church to mark Immaculate Conception ahead of KC trip
President Biden made an early morning trip to church Wednesday to mark the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception ahead of an afternoon flight to Kansas City to push his spending agenda.
Biden attended the 8:15 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, waving to children and parents outside the adjacent Holy Trinity School as he walked in.
The president left the church approximately 40 minutes after he arrived and returned to the White House.
The trip was not initially listed on Biden’s public schedule. The president was expected to depart Washington later Wednesday morning to travel to Kansas City for a 3:30 p.m. speech about the recently enacted bipartisan infrastructure spending law, as well as his nearly $2 trillion social spending plan.
The feast day of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin. It is one of 10 holy days of obligation in the Catholic Church in which the faithful are expected to attend Mass and abstain from work or recreation.
Biden is just the second Roman Catholic to hold the office of president and the first since John F. Kennedy. Following an October meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, the president told reporters that the pontiff had told him “he was happy I’m a good Catholic and I should keep receiving Communion.”
