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Via Washington Times:
President Obama’s first meeting with Pope Francis produced a little schism of its own.
The Vatican and White House gave starkly different versions Thursday of Mr. Obama’s meeting with Francis.
The president’s account downplayed the Catholic Church’s concerns about religious freedom in the United States and Obamacare’s mandate to pay for contraception.
The pontiff and the president were cordial in the televised portions of their meeting, but a subtle competition to set the agenda played out after the meeting, which went well beyond its scheduled half-hour.
“We actually didn’t talk a whole lot about social schisms in my conversations with His Holiness,” Mr. Obama said at a press conference in Rome. “In fact, that really was not a topic of conversation.”
Mr. Obama deflected a reporter’s question about the extent of his discussion with the pope on the contraceptive mandate by saying that Francis “actually did not touch in detail” on the subject. The administration has been locked in a lengthy legal and political battle with the U.S. Catholic Church hierarchy over Obamacare and issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
The Vatican, however, issued a statement after the meeting saying the president’s discussions with Francis and two other top Vatican officials focused “on questions of particular relevance for the [Catholic] Church in [the United States], such as the exercise of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection” — issues that have fueled divisions between Mr. Obama and the church.
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Via USA Today:
Former President Jimmy Carter is suggesting that President Obama may be reluctant to talk about issues affecting African-Americans because he himself is an African-American.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Carter likened the situation to women lawmakers who are loathe to discuss women’s issues.
Carter told HuffPost Live:
“Some women when they are elected become champions of human rights. I’ve seen other women who are elected who didn’t pay any attention to that particular thing because it was kind of an embarrassment to them to single out women since they were a woman — like I think it might be an embarrassment to President Obama to single out African American people.”
