{"id":443,"date":"2009-07-10T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-10T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/07\/truly-cordial.html"},"modified":"2009-07-10T14:47:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-10T14:47:00","slug":"truly-cordial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/07\/truly-cordial.html","title":{"rendered":"“Truly cordial”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those are the two words used by the Vatican to describe the meeting between President Obama and Pope Benedict. NCR’s John Allen<\/a> has details: <\/p>\n

<\/a>When President Barack Obama came calling on Pope Benedict XVI today, the two men enjoyed a \u201ctruly cordial\u201d encounter, according to a Vatican spokesperson, but at the same time there was no diplomatic silence from the pontiff about their differences over abortion and other \u201clife issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did Benedict press his pro-life case with his words to the president, but he even found a way to make the point with his gift, offering the president a copy of a recent Vatican document on bioethics. According to a Vatican spokesperson, the pope drew a repetition from Obama of his vow to bring down the actual abortion rate.<\/p>\n

Beyond the life issues, the Vatican\u2019s statement indicated that Benedict and Obama also found \u201cgeneral agreement\u201d on the Middle East peace process and other regional situations. The two leaders also touched food security, development aid especially for Africa and Latin America, immigration and drug trafficking, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Coming away from the meeting, however, it was hard to escape the impression that Benedict wanted to use it to deliver a clear pro-life message.<\/p>\n

While Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, said after the meeting that it would be wrong to interpret the pope\u2019s message as a \u201cpolemic,\u201d he added that the life issues are \u201cimportant for the American church\u201d and \u201cit would be ambiguous to try to hide these differences, or to put them in second place.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a written statement from the Vatican, the first issues discussed during a 35-minute private meeting this afternoon in the Apostolic Palace were \u201cquestions which \u2026 constitute a great challenge for the future of every nation and for the true progress of peoples, such as the defense and promotion of human life and the right to abide by one\u2019s conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latter phrase was understood as a reference to the current debate in America over protections for health care workers who assert a conscientious objection to participating in abortions or other procedures. During a session with Catholic journalists last week, Obama promised a \u201crobust conscience clause\u201d which would not weaken protections in vigor during the Bush administration.<\/p>\n

In a briefing for reporters in Rome, Lombardi said that Benedict XVI said afterwards that Obama had seemed \u201cattentive\u201d to the church\u2019s concerns, and that Obama had reiterated his commitment to adopting policies that will bring down the actual number of abortions.<\/p>\n

Lombardi said that Benedict XVI seemed \u201cvery satisfied and content\u201d with how the meeting went. Obama left the meeting saying to the pope that he wants to forge \u201ca very strong relationship\u201d with the Vatican. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Visit the NCR link for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those are the two words used by the Vatican to describe the meeting between President Obama and Pope Benedict. NCR’s John Allen has details: When President Barack Obama came calling on Pope Benedict XVI today, the two men enjoyed a \u201ctruly cordial\u201d encounter, according to a Vatican spokesperson, but at the same time there was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\n"Truly cordial" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/07\/truly-cordial.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Truly cordial" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Those are the two words used by the Vatican to describe the meeting between President Obama and Pope Benedict. 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