President Obama speaks to the Catholic Press

July 3, 11:44 AMDC Catholic Living ExaminerDenise Hunnell, M.D.

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(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

In anticipation of his visit to Rome and meeting with the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, President Obama called together members of the Catholic Press for a round table question and answer session. This was a small group of eight journalists. Several of the Catholic press representatives were from the dissident publications that continuously question Church authority and oppose the Magisterium on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and women’s ordination.

Joe Feuerherd of the National Catholic Reporter asked,  “Outside of your partisan political opponents – the Republicans – there’s one group that has also been critical of you in perhaps harsh ways – a number of American U.S. bishops. Is there a point where if you keep getting hammered by the leaders of the American Catholic Church that you write them off as opposition and try to take another approach?”

President Obama responded to this question in a conciliatory way:

“The American bishops have a profound influence in their communities, in the church, and beyond…What I will say is that although there have been criticisms leveled at me from some of the bishops, there have been a number of bishops who have been extremely generous and supportive even if they don’t agree with me on every issue. So in that sense the American bishops represent a cross-section of opinion just like other groups do.”

Dan Connors of Catholic Digest suggested the criticism of President Obama has more to do with internal feuding among Catholics than with the issues. He asked the President, ”Do you feel sometimes that you’ve been dragged into a long-time family feud among Catholics, liberal and conservative, and these splits that existed before you came to office?”

President Obama’s response invoked Cardinal Bernadin and his consistent seamless garment of life approach:

“I think responses to my administration mirror tensions within the Church as a whole…Cardinal Bernardin was strongly pro-life, never shrank away from talking about that issue, but was very consistent in talking about a ‘seamless garment’ and a range of issues that were part and parcel of what he considered to be pro-life, that meant that he was concerned about poverty; he was concerned about how children were treated; he was concerned about the death penalty; he was concerned about foreign policy,” said the president. “And that part of the Catholic tradition is something that continues to inspire me. And I think that there have been times over the last decade or two where that more holistic tradition feels like it’s gotten buried under the abortion debate.”

It is a shame that no one followed up this response with the 1988 quote of Cardinal Bernadin, "I know that some people on the left, if I may use that label, have used the consistent ethic to give the impression that the abortion issue is not all that important anymore, that you should be against abortion in a general way but that there are more important issues, so don't hold anybody's feet to the fire just on abortion. That's a misuse of the consistent ethic, and I deplore it."

Paul Baumann of Commonweal magazine asked, “What are your realistic hopes for the group seeking common ground on the abortion issue?”

President Obama responded:

“I’ve never been under the illusion that there are going to be ... that we were going to simply talk all our differences away on these issues…Again, I acknowledged this in the Notre Dame speech. I think there’s a irreducible difference, conflict, on the abortion issue, that the best we can do is suggest that people of goodwill can be on either side, but you can’t wish those differences away. I can tell you, though, that on the idea of helping young people make smart choices so that they are not engaging in casual sexual activity that can lead to unwanted pregnancies, on the importance of adoption as a option, an alternative to abortion, on caring for pregnant women so that it is easier for them to support children, those are immediately three areas where I would be surprised if we don’t have some pretty significant areas of agreement. You identified the areas where things may be more difficult. I personally think that combining good sexual and — or good sex and moral education needs to be combined with contraception in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies,” said the president. “I recognize that contradicts Catholic Church doctrine, so I would not expect someone who feels very strongly about this issue as a matter of religious faith to be able to agree with me on that, but that’s my personal view. We may not be able to arrive at perfectly compatible language on that front.”

Father Drew Christiansen of America magazine asked “What progress would you like to report to the Holy Father on meeting the needs of the poor as a result of the [G8] L’Aquila conference? His response as reported by America magazine was, “I want to talk to the Holy Father about some core reforms not just overseas, but here in this country that assure basic security for individuals, the middle class as well as the poor.”

There were also faithful Catholic publications represented at the conference. Father Owen Kearns, representing the National Catholic Register, quoted the president’s Cairo speech where he said, ‘We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretense of liberalism,’ and wondered if that message was applicable to everyone in the administration given the examples of language used by some that has been hostile to the faith of Catholics. (This is probably referring to Harry Knox, whom President Obama appointed to his Advisory Council on Faith Based Initiatives. Knox has been extremely critical of the Catholic Church and specifically of Pope Benedict. He claimed the Knights of Columbus were foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression.)

President Obama dismissed such concern by saying there is “sound and fury on both sides”:

For the gay and lesbian community in this country, I think it’s clear that they feel victimized in fairly powerful ways and they’re often hurt by not just certain teachings of the Catholic Church, but the Christian faith generally. And as a Christian, I’m constantly wrestling with my faith and my solicitude and regard and concern for gays and lesbians. To the extent that I weighed into these debates, what I often discover is that there’s a lot of heat and sound and fury on both sides of these debates, even among people who I consider to be good people on either side.

Patricia Zapor representing the Catholic News Service, the media arm of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked “Can you talk a little bit about where you see the boundary lines between what – how much the government can limit what happens according to people’s consciences?”

President Obama sought to reassure concerns that conscience protections were being abandoned:

“I think that the only reason that my position may appear unclear is because it came in the wake of a last-minute, 11th-hour change in conscience clause provisions that were pushed forward by the previous administration that we chose to reverse, but my underlying position has always been consistent, which is I’m a believer in conscience clauses. I was a supporter of a robust conscience clause in Illinois for Catholic hospitals and health-care providers. I discussed with Cardinal George when he was here in the Oval Office, and I reiterated my support for an effective conscience clause in my speech at Notre Dame.

“I think there have been some who keep on anticipating the worst from us, and it’s not based on anything I’ve said or done, but is rather just a perception somehow that we have some hard-line agenda that we’re seeking to push.

“We will be coming out with ... more specific guidelines. But I can assure all of your readers that when this review is complete there will be a robust conscience clause in place. It may not meet the criteria of every possible critic of our approach, but it certainly will not be weaker than what existed before the changes were made.

Vatican Radio, represented by Elena Molinari, asked about the Middle East, “How does your administration plan to recount those objections and to restart negotiations on the two-state track?

“We have been very clear that we think settlements should stop ...On the other hand, it’s not just the problem of Israeli settlements. The Palestinians have a set of obligations, some of which the Palestinian Authority have met, some of which they have not been as strong on. We want to encourage them to clamp down on violence, to end the incitement that you still hear, unfortunately, in many Palestinian communities.

“What the United States should be doing is holding a mirror to both sides and indicating how their failure to resolve this issue is undermining peace and security for both peoples. This is a topic that I’m looking forward to speaking with the Holy Father about, because I think that our position is going to overlap greatly with the position of the government of the Holy See.”

Jacqueline Salmon of the Washington Post, the only secular publication represented, asked about the Obama’s progress in finding a church home.

The Obamas have not yet made a choice:

Michelle and I decided that we would wait a few months after arriving before we made a decision on this, partly — let’s be blunt: I mean, we were pretty affected by what happened at Trinity and the controversy surrounding Reverend Wright. That was deeply disturbing to us, and it was disappointing for us personally. It made us very sensitive to the fact that as president the church we attend can end up being interpreted as speaking for us at all times. We were also mindful of the fact that the times that we have attended church here, everybody who attends has to go through a mag — and it’s a scene. I mean, it’s just — unfortunately, I am now very disruptive wherever I go. And so thinking about how to just manage the logistics of that was something that we spent some time talking about.

Perhaps the most encouraging piece of news from this wide-ranging interview process was the President’s stated commitment to conscience protections. If he follows through with this promise there will be great relief among those who uphold the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.