Pope Francis meets with French President Francois Hollande, express brotherly sentiments

The Roman Catholic Church leader and the agnostic leader of the secular French Republic both expressed brotherly sentiments as they met three weeks after the Normandy church attack.

French President François Hollande visited the Vatican on Wednesday and shared a private meeting that lasted roughly 40 minutes with Pope Francis, whom he expressed gratitude for showing solidarity with the French people.

"The pope's words were very comforting," France24 quoted Hollande as saying. "He confided in me that he felt like a brother at the side of the French people."

According to Vatican Radio, Hollande and Pope Francis spoke on the phone for 20 minutes the day two teenage local extremists attacked a Catholic church in Saint Etienne du Rouvray near Rouen, which happened to be Hollande's birthplace, and slew the 85-year-old French Catholic priest Fr. Jacques Hamel. Hollande told Pope Francis "when a priest is attacked all of France is wounded"

The Argentine pope thanked Hollande for contacting him like "a brother" during his flight to Poland.

"Both of us, at our own level, have a vocation to protect Christians in the Middle East. Logically, the pope knows the role Christians play in keeping the equilibrium in the region," the French leader told journalists after his visit to the French National Church, San Luigi dei Francesi, according to Crux.

Hollande made his first stop at the church, which hosted a chapel as a place of pilgrimage to honor the victims of terrorism that include the 130 dead from last November's Paris attacks, the 84 dead in Nice during the Bastille Day celebration and Fr. Hamel.

The agnostic leader, who clashed with the Catholics over his gay marriage legislation and appointment of an openly gay French ambassador to the Vatican, shared that he wanted to discuss the issues of migrants and refugees as well as religious protection regardless of faith.

"French secularism's message is one which unites, not one that wounds," said Hollande. "The Republic must defend the right to believe and also to not believe."

Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin and British Archbishop Paul Gallagher joined Hollande and Pope Francis after their private meeting. The Vatican did not disclose what they talked about but said that the two leaders both gave each other gifts.