This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Aboard Air Force One back in January, Joe Biden must have wondered if the cosmos was conspiring against him. With just a few days left in office, Biden had hoped to fulfill a personal wish: one last presidential meeting with Pope Francis. But factors beyond his control were making one final pilgrimage to the Vatican look increasingly unlikely. Advertisement Advertisement