Obama Expects "Frank" Discussion With Pope
The White House says it expects "frank" but constructive talks in President Obama's meeting Friday with Pope Benedict XVI - two men who share similar views on some topics, but disagree on abortion and stem cell research.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports President Obama hopes to find common ground with Pope Benedict XVI on Middle East peace, immigration, and the fight against poverty in their first face-to-face meeting.
With some Catholic activists and American bishops outspoken in their criticism of Mr. Obama, even as polls have shown he received a majority of Catholic votes, the audience is much awaited.
Mr. Obama's election presented a challenge for the Vatican after eight years of common ground with President George W. Bush in opposing abortion, an issue that drew them together despite the Vatican's opposition to the war in Iraq.
But the Vatican has been openly interested in Mr. Obama's views and scheduled an unusual afternoon meeting to accommodate the American president at the end of his stay in Italy for a G-8 summit meeting in the earthquake-stricken city of L'Aquila and just before he leaves for Ghana.
In the tradition-conscious Vatican, most such meetings are held at midday. The Vatican has also arranged live TV coverage of the open session of the meeting after their private talks.
"I think there will be frank discussion," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said earlier this week. "I think that there's a lot that they agree on that they'll get a chance to discuss."
"We know the pope has been keenly aware of the president's outreach to the Muslim world. The pope shares the president's view on reducing the number of nuclear weapons. So I think there's certainly a lot of common ground."
Benedict broke Vatican protocol the day after Mr. Obama was elected by sending a personal note of congratulations rather than waiting and sending the usual brief telegram on Inauguration Day.
"I've had a wonderful conversation with the pope over the phone right after the election," Mr. Obama told a group of Catholic journalists in Washington shortly before he left for Europe. "And in some ways we see this as a meeting with any other government - the government of the Holy See. There are going to be some areas where we've got deep agreements; there are going to be some areas where we've got some disagreements."
But he acknowledged the pope is more than a government head, saying the church "has such profound influence worldwide and in our country."
L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaper, gave Mr. Obama a positive review after his first 100 days in office. In a front-page editorial, it said that even on ethical questions Obama hadn't confirmed the "radical" direction he discussed during the campaign.
Tensions grew when Mr. Obama was invited to receive an honorary degree at the leading U.S. Catholic university, Notre Dame. Dozens of U.S. bishops denounced the university and the local bishop boycotted the ceremony.
Former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, who now heads a Vatican tribunal, accused Mr. Obama of pursuing anti-life and anti-family agendas. He called it a "scandal" that Notre Dame had invited him to speak.
Yet L'Osservatore concluded that Mr. Obama was looking for some common ground with his speech, noting he asked Americans to work together to reduce the number of abortions.
Some conservative American Catholics criticized the Vatican newspaper for its accommodating stance.
This week, Cardinal Justin Rigali, who heads the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, complained that the final guidelines of the National Institutes of Health for human embryonic stem cell research are broader than the draft guidelines.
As a child in Indonesia, Mr. Obama's Muslim father enrolled him in Catholic school for a few years. The president is a Protestant who says he is taking his time picking a church because his choice will undergo political scrutiny.
Mr. Obama left the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church in Chicago after incendiary sermons were made public and their relationship became a political liability for him as a presidential candidate.
White House national security aide Denis McDonough, speaking to reporters Thursday on the influence of Catholic social teaching on Mr. Obama, said the president "expresses many things that many Catholics recognize as fundamental to our teaching."
Mr. Obama "often refers to the fundamental belief that each person is endowed with dignity ... The dignity of people is a driving goal in what we hope to accomplish in development policy, for example, and in foreign policy," McDonough said.
In his interview with Catholic journalists, Mr. Obama said he would tell the pope of his concern that the world financial crisis is not "borne disproportionally by the most poor and vulnerable countries."
Just this week, Benedict issued a major document calling for a new world financial order guided by ethics and the search for the common good, denouncing the profit-at-all-cost mentality blamed for bringing about the global financial meltdown.
As Mr. Obama has pledged to step-up efforts for Middle East peace through a two-state solution, Benedict made a similar appeal during a trip in May to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. He issued the Vatican's strongest call yet for a Palestinian state.
Mr. Obama will first hold a brief meeting with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, before his audience with Benedict in the pope's study.
Vatican officials said Michelle Obama and their two daughters are expected at the Vatican before the president arrives from L'Aquila for a tour of St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. They then will join Mr. Obama to meet the pope at the end of the private talks.