The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Obama focuses on positives
PRESIDENT Barack Obama has said his meeting with Pope Francis focused on their agreements, not their divisions.
Mr Obama said the bulk of their nearly hour-long talk focused on the Pope’s concerns about income inequality and conflict around the world.
The president said they also discussed immigration reform but he said the Pope only briefly mentioned church objections to a birth control mandate under his healthcare law.
Mr Obama said he discussed the Affordable Care Act requirement more later in a meeting with the Vatican secretary of state.
A statement from the Vatican focuses more on areas of dispute, saying topics discussed included abortion and contraception, without mentioning income inequality.
Mr Obama spoke at a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Rome.
Contraception coverage and religious freedom have been central to the church’s objections to Mr Obama’s healthcare law, which is facing a challenge on those grounds before the Supreme Court.
But Mr Obama said those discussions took place with the Vatican secretary of state Pietro Parolin, not with Francis. “We actually didn’t talk a whole lot about social schisms in my conversations with His Holiness,” he added.
“I was g rateful to have the opportunity to speak with him about the responsibilities that we all share to care for the least of these, the poor, the excluded,” Mr Obama said at a news conference.
“And I was extremely moved by his insights about the importance of us all having a moral perspective on world problems and not simply thinking in terms of our own narrow self-interests.”
The marked difference in emphasis introduced a perplexing element to the long-anticipated meeting, which the White House has looked forward to as a way to validate Mr Obama’s economic policies. In a report on Vatican Radio the day before the meeting, the Vatican had signalled that the divisive issues would indeed be on the agenda.
Obama emerged visibly energised from his audience with the Pope, during which he invited Francis to visit the White House. Although Mr Obama and the church remain deeply split over social issues, Mr Obama considers the pontiff a kindred spirit on issues of inequality, and their private meeting in the Papal Library ran longer than scheduled.
After they emerged to cameras, Francis presented Mr Obama with a copy of his papal mission statement decrying a global economic system that excludes the poor. Mr Obama said he would keep it at the White House.
“You know, I actually will probably read this when I’m in the Oval Office, when I am deeply frustrated and I am sure it will give me strength and will calm me down,” Mr Obama said.
“I hope,” the Pope responded.