Vatican Issues a Balanced, Accurate Statement About Obama's Papal Audience
A Vatican statement released after the meeting listed the defense and promotion of human life and the right to freedom of conscience as leading issues. It said their discussions also included immigration, the Middle East peace process, and the global economic crisis and its implications for food security and development aid, especially for Africa and Latin America.
A Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told reporters Mr. Obama assured the pontiff of his determination to reduce the number of abortions in the United States.
The pope and Mr. Obama are known to disagree on such issues as abortion, but they do agree on such matters as helping the poor.
I am glad that the Vatican set such a good journalistic example in telling the whole story of the Pope's audience with Obama--listing positives and negatives.
I hope that other publications and President Obama's press corps will do the same.
I almost wonder if the release tried so hard to strike a balance because of the tendency of a few American Catholic publications to continually portray Obama as the anti-Christ.
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Theodore Roosevelt said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Thanks for that Fantine. You didn't link the source, could you?
The only thing I've found is the official press release from the vatican which doesn't discuss the particulars of the dialogue at all, just the topics.
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This afternoon, Friday 10 July 2009, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI received in Audience the President of the United States of America, His Excellency Mr. Barack H. Obama. Prior to the Audience, the President met His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, and also His Excellency Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Secretary for Relations with States.
In the course of their cordial exchanges the conversation turned first of all to questions which are in the interests of all and which constitute a great challenge for the future of every nation and for the true progress of peoples, such as the defence and promotion of life and the right to abide by one’s conscience.
Reference was also made to immigration with particular attention to the matter of reuniting families.
The meeting focused as well upon matters of international politics, especially in light of the outcome of the G8 Summit. The conversation also dealt with the peace process in the Middle East, on which there was general agreement, and with other regional situations. Certain current issues were then considered, such as dialogue between cultures and religions, the global economic crisis and its ethical implications, food security, development aid especially for Africa and Latin America, and the problem of drug trafficking. Finally, the importance of educating young people everywhere in the value of tolerance was highlighted.
__________________ Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. - Blessed Mother Teresa
A little off topic but from your article, I did find this interesting as well.
During an exchange of gifts, the pope presented Mr. Obama with a mosaic picture of St. Peter's Square and two books on the church's view of bioethics and the sanctity of life. The president gave the pontiff a stole that once draped the body of St. John Newmann, one of America's first saints.
How does the President get his hands on a relic like that??! Nice touch though I must say.
__________________ Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. - Blessed Mother Teresa
Good question Maggie.
How did a politician get hold of a relic?
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Matthew Chapter 7
7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
Maybe the Kennedys gave it to him... or maybe Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden gave it to him... but where would they get that kind of nice relic?
Interesting though.
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Where Peter is, there is the Church. Where the Church is, there is eternal Life.
"The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society"- Mother Theresa
"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion?
As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts... her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.
And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion". - Mother Theresa
Apparently the State Dept called a Philadelphia Catholic gift shop who called the National Shrine of St. John Neumann. They had this stole that was on the body from 1989 - 2007.
Interesting.
__________________ Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. - Blessed Mother Teresa
Quote:
"A Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told reporters Mr. Obama assured the pontiff of his determination to reduce the number of abortions in the United States."
Obama SUPPORTS abortion, WHY would he tell the Pope a ball-faced lie??
I could probably dig up quite a few video's where Obama has flat out stated his desire that abortion be available to all women.
__________________
'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your Name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one'
Amen
In the Name of the Father, The Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Quote:
"A Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told reporters Mr. Obama assured the pontiff of his determination to reduce the number of abortions in the United States."
Obama SUPPORTS abortion, WHY would he tell the Pope a ball-faced lie??
I could probably dig up quite a few video's where Obama has flat out stated his desire that abortion be available to all women.
His stance is that he agrees with abortion but also would like to see it happen infrequently.
My concern with this philosophy of his is that I think the way this would happen would be with a greater use of the morning after pill which is in fact still abortion but I doubt he'd agree with me.
__________________ Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness. - Blessed Mother Teresa
Nice touch though I must say. 
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