A Protestant minister known as the architect of the Moral Monday protest movement in North Carolina will spend the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend at a Vatican conference dedicated to labor and the workers’ movement that includes a meeting with Pope Francis.

The Rev. William J. Barber II told The News & Observer that he received an invitation to the Vatican earlier this fall, along with other worker and labor rights advocates. Barber stepped down as head of the state NAACP last month to focus on his role as president of new social justice organization Repairers of the Breach.

Barber, who will talk about his Poor People’s Campaign at the conference, praised the pope for being “on the forefront of declaring that poverty in our current world is a scandal.”

Barber’s 84-year-old mother will accompany him.