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President Obama met Pope Francis for the first time Thursday in Vatican City, giving the leader of the Catholic church a gift of seeds used in the White House Garden.

“Wonderful meeting you,” the president said, according to a White House pool report. “It is a great honor. I’m a great admirer. … Thank you so much for receiving me.” The two men met inside the Papal Library, across from the Pope’s desk, for about 50 minutes.

Obama gave Pope Francis a custom-made seed chest — featuring reclaimed wood from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary — as he heard the pope plans to open the gardens of the papal summer residence to the public.

“These I think are carrots,” Obama said, per the pool report, while holding a pouch. “Each one has a different seed in it. The box is made from timber from the first cathedral to open in the United States in Baltimore.”

The Pope, in turn, gave Obama two medallions and a copy of Evangelii Gaudium, or The Joy of the Gospel.

“I actually will probably read this in the Oval Office when I’m deeply frustrated. I’m sure it will give me strength and calm me down,” Obama said smiling, which made the Pope laugh. “I hope,” the pope responded.

The meeting was closed to reporters. But in a statement, the White House said the president looked “forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality.” Vatican Radio, “the official broadcasting service of the Vatican,” however, reported that Obama’s “audience with Pope Francis will take place in the context of a complex phase of the administration’s relations with the Church of the United States, marked, in particular, by controversy on the implementation of health care reform … having to do with rules on mandatory health care coverage of sterilization, contraception, and abortion; and on other issues at the centre of public debate in the United States, such as the legalization of homosexual marriages.”

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