Mayor Eric Adams will travel to Rome on Thursday for a conference that will include a meeting with the Pope, the mayor’s office said on Monday.
It is the first known in-person meeting between Adams and Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The mayor is set to return on Monday morning.
Adams will be joined on the trip by his former chief-of-staff and longtime political adviser Frank Carone, who told Gothamist that he had his own invitation and hoped to accompany the mayor on his meeting with the Pope.
News of the trip was first reported by the New York Times. The mayor’s office declined to say who else would be going.
The initial press release from the mayor’s office offered sparse details, saying only that Adams will attend the second annual World Meeting on Human Fraternity and that his trip will be paid by Fondazione Fratelli Tutti, the group organizing the conference.
The meeting with the Pope was revealed in a social media post on X from Fabien Levy, the deputy mayor for communications.
The two-day event will feature roundtable discussions with Pope Francis, other mayors and a collection of people with expertise in sports, arts and science, including 30 Nobel Peace Prize winners, according to the organizers’ press release. Sergio Mattarella, the president of Italy, is also set to attend a portion of the event.
The conference is described as “an antidote to the many forms of violence and wars around the world.”
Adams’ visit to the Vatican comes amid protests at Columbia University and other city campuses over the Israel-Hamas war that have led to numerous student suspensions and widespread arrests.
Further demonstrations are expected in the coming days. Columbia University on Monday canceled plans for its main graduation ceremony and announced a schedule for a series of other ceremonies for individual divisions and schools that are set to begin on Friday.
Adams has previously traveled internationally to Latin America, Israel, Qatar and Greece.