America’s second Catholic president will not be at the funeral for the first pope to have retired in six centuries. That incongruous absence at a watershed moment for the world’s largest Christian denomination is at the request of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

While the ostensible reason appears to be the explanation from the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, that the late pope wanted a simple and solemn funeral, it does not take Saint Thomas Aquinas to discern the symbolism behind the absence of the world’s most powerful Catholic at the funeral of the Church’s one-time shepherd.       

America will be represented by its ambassador to the Holy See, Joseph “Joe” Donnelley, according to the White House press secretary, Karine Jeanne-Pierre. She explained that the tapping of Mr. Donnelly “accords with the wishes of the late Pope and the Vatican.”

Mr. Biden, in Kentucky along with the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to tout the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, was asked about the withheld invitation. The president answered a local reporter who asked about his lack of attendance with another question: “Well, why do you think?”

According to footage from Fox News, the reporter, Owen Jensen of EWTN, responded, “You can tell me.” Mr. Biden retorted that his presence would “take an entourage of a thousand people to show up” and “move everything in the wrong direction.” He added that Benedict was a “fine man.”

The funeral of the pope emeritus will not officially be a state funeral, as it is Pope Francis — the Holy See’s head of state — who sits on the throne of Saint Peter that Benedict resigned. Francis expressed “gratitude to him, for all the good he did, and above all for his witness of faith and of prayer.”

According to the Catholic News Agency, Francis will pray these words: “Gracious Father, we commend to your mercy Pope Emeritus Benedict whom you made Successor of Peter and shepherd of the Church, a fearless preacher of your word and a faithful minister of the divine mysteries.”

It is not just Benedict’s successor who mourns. The Associated Press reports that on the first day that his body lay in state at Saint Peter’s Basilica — in a coffin hewn from cypress wood — 65,000 souls paid their respects. These tens of thousands include the Hungarian premier, Viktor Orbán, and Prime Minister Meloni of Italy.   

For the past decade, the pope emeritus lived a withdrawn life of contemplation — with the occasional dispatch — at Mater Ecclesia Monastery at Vatican grounds. Before becoming the Vicar of Christ, he for a quarter century headed the Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei, charged with refining doctrine and guarding the Church from heresy. He was also dean of the College of Cardinals. 

Funeral rites will be led by Francis. There will be no conclave at the Sistine Chapel or worldwide gathering of cardinals because there is no pontifical vacancy. Only delegations from Italy and Germany, where Benedict was born, have been officially invited.

According to Euronews, Mr. Bruni explained that if “other heads of state or government come, they will do so in a personal capacity.” According to Der Spiegel, the German president will be there, as will the queen of Spain and prince of Belgium. The presidents of two devoutly Catholic lands — Poland and Portugal — will attend.  

While Ms. Jeanne-Pierre noted that Mr. Biden is “passionate about his faith,” he has often collided with the Catholic Church and its teachings, specifically on the issues of abortion and gay marriage. In 2019, he was denied communion at a church in South Carolina on account of those beliefs.

The prelate who refused Mr. Biden the sacrament explained that “any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.” The president regularly attends Mass at the District of Columbia’s Holy Trinity Catholic Church.   

The Church’s catechism notes that “since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.”

On the question of homosexuality, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops calls on gay persons to pursue a path of “struggle and self-mastery, for following Jesus always means following the way of the Cross.” The catechism states that “homosexual acts” are “intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law.”

In contrast, Mr. Biden has long been at the forefront of supporting gay marriage. When he signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law, he observed that “marriage is a simple proposition: Who do you love, and will you be loyal with that person you love?  It’s not more complicated than that.”

In 2020, the Supreme Court found for Little Sisters of the Poor, ​​a Catholic religious institute for women, in their insistence on religious and moral exemptions relating to providing their employees with contraception to the Affordable Care Act, which Mr. Biden famously labeled a “big deal.”