Pope Francis calls Sanders meeting 'polite,' not politics

Sen. Bernie Sanders said it was a "real honor" to meet briefly in the Vatican on Saturday with Pope Francis, who chuckled afterward that anyone who viewed the "polite" chat as meddling in politics should "look for a psychiatrist."

The Vermont independent, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said he told the pope in their five-minute chat that he appreciated the leader of the Catholic Church's message about the need for more economic justice and morality globally. After all, Sanders has repeatedly made the same point, at least about income inequality and other inequities in the U.S.

"We had an opportunity to meet with him this morning," Sanders told the Associated Press. "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, who is Jewish, said he has long been a "big fan" of the pope's teachings on economic justice.

Sanders, in the thick of the presidential race, had to break off his primary campaigning and fly all night to get to the Vatican, where he addressed a Vatican conference on social justice and spent the night at the Vatican guest house where Francis lives.

The pope, who made a brief trip to Greece on Saturday to visit a refugee camp, spoke to reporters on the plane home about his encounter with the American politician. "When I came down, I greeted him, I shook his hand and nothing more. This is called good manners and it is not getting involved in politics," the pope said, according to Reuters.  "If anyone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics, I recommend that he look for a psychiatrist," he said, laughing.

The official Vatican transcript, issued later, quoted the pope's remarks as saying that Sanders "greeted me politely together with his wife (…) It is called ‘manners’ and has nothing to do with politics” he said. The official transcript, however, did not include the humorous aside regarding psychiatry.

The senator is challenging Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination and the meeting comes the weekend before Tuesday's pivotal New York primary, a state with a significant number of Catholic voters. Clinton holds a 250-delegate lead over Sanders in the primaries and the senator is trying to string together a series of victories in upcoming contests to draw closer to the nomination.

While Sanders has been stressing what he sees as economic injustices during the campaign, he's also been hammering the former secretary of State over her contributions from Wall Street banks.

Sanders was at the Vatican to attend a conference on economic inequality and climate change hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. His decision to leave the New York campaign trail at such a critical time was questioned all week. But Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, told CNN that "there are some things that are above politics" and that the conference gave Sanders a chance to discuss signature issues of his.

Sanders said the meeting with the pope was at the papal residence. "I told him that I was incredibly appreciative of the incredible role that he is playing in this planet in discussing issues about the need for an economy based on morality, not greed," Sanders told AP.

Bernie Sanders says he, pope agree on income inequality

Jeffrey Sachs, a Sanders foreign policy adviser and adviser to the United Nations on climate change, told the AP there were no photos taken of the meeting. Sanders and his wife, Jane, met the pope for about five minutes in the foyer of the domus as the pope was leaving for Greece, Sachs said.

The Vatican typically avoids political campaigns at all costs, but Francis has already deviated considerably from the norm, especially when it comes to issues affecting the less fortunate.

"His message is resonating with every religion on earth with people who have no religion and it is a message that says we have got to inject morality and justice into the global economy," Sanders said, according to AP.

While some alleged Sanders lobbied for the invitation, the chancellor for the pontifical academy, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, said he invited Sanders because he was the only U.S. presidential candidate who showed strong interest in Francis' teachings.

Sanders often drops Pope Francis’ teachings into conversation and speeches, posts his comments on social media and highlights news stories about him on his website. Sanders says he isn't "much into" organized religion but considers himself "spiritual." He disagrees with various tenets of the Catholic Church (he supports abortion rights and gay rights).

"The issues that I talked about yesterday at the conference as you well know are issues that I have been talking about not just throughout this campaign but throughout my political life," he said, according to the AP. "And I am just very much appreciated the fact that the pope in many ways has been raising these issues in a global way in the sense that I have been trying to raise them in the United States."

“At a time when so few have so much, and so many have so little, we must reject the foundations of this contemporary economy as immoral and unsustainable,” Sanders said, according to his prepared remarks.

Despite disagreements over some of the Church's teachings, Sanders applauds the pope’s forceful statements against “the idolatry of money” and the role humans play in climate change, as well as his focus on the needs of hungry children, the unemployed and the elderly.

“This pope has been extremely articulate in addressing some of the major economic and spiritual crises and environmental crises that our planet is currently facing,” Sanders said during an August interview. “I get blown away and deeply impressed by a lot of what he says.”

Contributing: Associated Press