It was clear from the start that Joe Biden’s visit to Ireland would be something special. For the US President, the state visit is also a journey into his own past: his family is of Irish origin. The 80-year-old could hardly have guessed how emotional the visit to the island would be for him.
On the last day of the trip, the Marian pilgrimage site of Knock Shrine was on the program for the devout Catholic. What Biden did not know: Frank O’Grady has been working there for some time – the priest who administered the sacrament of last rites to his son Beau, who died in 2015. The meeting with the cleric moved the US President deeply. “He laughed, he cried, it hit him hard,” Richard Gibbons, head of the facility, described the scene to the BBC. “You could see how much that meant to him.”
Biden himself said afterwards: “It was incredible to see him. It seemed like a sign to me.” The encounter with the priest was accidental and very unexpected. According to Gibbons himself, he did not know anything about the connection between O’Grady and Biden until the day of the visit. When he told the president about it, he insisted on meeting him: “He sent a Secret Service agent to find him.”
Priest and President spent about ten minutes together. Biden and the minister said a prayer together and lit a candle. In addition, the 80-year-old took the opportunity for a few minutes of quiet, personal prayer. “It was a wonderful, spontaneous thing,” says Gibbons.
Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. At Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, he received last rites from Frank O’Grady, who was then working there as a hospital chaplain. In the Catholic faith, the sacrament is intended to give strength and encouragement to the terminally ill. About the meeting with Joe Biden, the cleric told the Irish broadcaster “RTE”: “It gave me a big hug, it was like a reunion. He told me that he was grateful for everything that was done.”
Sources: BBC/RTE/AP
Watch the video: US President Joe Biden is shown standing behind his chair in the Oval Office. But some internet users see him sitting in his chair in a cool pose. An optical illusion that inspires many.
