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Pope Benedict to meet with Barack Obama in July
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AP Photo/Ron Edmonds
Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, has confirmed that the Pope is available to meet with President Barack Obama on July 10 in the Vatican. Obama will be in Italy meeting with the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations in L'Aquila, east of Rome, July 8-10.
The Pontiff and the U.S. President clash on many issues, including abortion and embryonic stem-cell research. According to a White House spokesman, the two will discuss their “shared belief in the dignity of all people.”
The 2009 Official Catholic Directory recently released statistics showing that there are 68.1 million Catholics in the United States, an increase of about one million from the previous year, comprising 22 percent of the U.S. population. With Catholics represented in such large numbers, it makes sense that the Vatican would reach out to the U.S. For example, earlier this month the pope appointed American priest Fr. Augustine Di Noia O.P. secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.
In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter, Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Institute at Georgetown University in Washington DC, explained that the “Vatican has always wanted to have a good relationship with the United States.” In fact, Reese goes on to say, “They see a lot of where they are in much closer agreement with the Obama administration than they were with the Bush administration, especially in the war in Iraq, the concern about the poor around the world, and the whole question of nuclear disarmament.”
Obviously abortion remains a problematic issue between the two leaders. The U.S. Bishops have been extremely critical of Obama in this area, recently attacking Notre Dame for bestowing an honorary degree upon Obama and allowing him to speak on campus. Father Reese notes that the U.S. Bishops, however, “don’t speak with one voice” and are perhaps attacking Obama out of fear, for example, that Obama will remove conscience clause protection for doctors who do not want to perform abortions—something Obama has said he will not do. Benedict has previously reached out to the U.S. Bishops on this issue. In a controversial 2004 letter from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the U.S. Bishops, the future pope elucidated what would constitute “formal” cooperation by a Catholic voter in a politician’s support of abortion, stating, “A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia.”
Another issue likely to come up is the plight of the poor around the world. Benedict is expected to release a new encyclical on Catholic social teaching, “Caritas in veritate” (Charity in Truth) in response to the current economic crisis. The encyclical may be published as early as June 29. As Reese predicts in the Washington Post, “conservatives will be shocked and disappointed by the encyclical, which will reflect Benedict's skepticism toward unbridled capitalism based on greed…. Unlike President Obama who wants to reform a system that he believes is out of control, Pope Benedict wants to rethink the whole system.” According to Benedict in a statement this month, “The financial and economic crisis clearly shows that certain economic-financial paradigms that have been dominant in the past years must be rethought.”
For more info: See ANSA.it: "Obama to Meet Pope July 10"
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