For the first time since Pope Francis has been the leader of the Catholic Church, he is meeting with President Obama. The president was invited to the Vatican to discuss a variety of issues with the pope today, and though Obama has expressed admiration for Pope Francis, there’s speculation that the meeting may become touchy at times.
Officials from both sides have said that the conversation will be focused on topics of shared values and priorities, but prior to the visit, Vatican Radio—which, according to USA Today “is considered an official organ of communication for the church“— released a story addressing U.S. policy issues at odds with Vatican teaching. It said that the meeting “will take place in the content of a complex phase of the administration’s relations of the Church of the United States, marked, in particular, by controversy on the implementation of health care reform having to do with the rules on mandatory health care coverage of sterilization, contraception, and abortion; and on other issues at the center of the public debate in the United States, such as the legalization of homosexual marriages” …
