Bernie Sanders invited by Vatican to speak at conference, sparking controversy

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he has accepted an invitation from the Vatican to attend and speak at a conference on social, economic and environmental issues just days before the New York primary on April 15.

And in the process he sparked a diplomatic controversy over Vatican protocol.

"I am very excited to have received an invitation from the Vatican to participate in a major conference dealing with how we inject morality into the world's economy," Sanders told reporters Friday morning.

When asked if he will personally meet with Pope Francis, Sanders said it was not yet clear.

"It is something that I very much would like to do," Sanders said. "The Pope’s schedule is determined by the Vatican. I would certainly be enthusiastic about that. I think there is a possibility, but that has not been scheduled.”

Sanders said he would be giving a speech at the Vatican conference next Friday, April 15, and will return to the U.S. on Saturday.

An hour or two later, Bloomberg News reported that Sanders had touched off a diplomatic row, with one Vatican official telling the business service that the Vermont senator had essentially invited himself to the conference, in the process showing "monumental discourtesy."

“Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons,” the president of the conference's host, Margaret Archer of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, told Bloomberg. “I think in a sense he may be going for the Catholic vote, but this is not the Catholic vote, and he should remember that and act accordingly.”

A senior Vatican source, however, told Fox News that Monsignor Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, not Pope Francis, invited Sanders to the conference, but no one-on-one meeting between Sanders and the pope is foreseen at this time.

The source also told Fox News that the Vatican is eager to stay out of the U.S. presidential campaign, especially with many Catholics expressing unease on social media that the pro-choice Sanders will be speaking at the Vatican.

"Is that going to thrill us? No," the Vatican source told Fox News. But the source added that the pope meets with many different politicians, and it's possible that Sanders will meet with Francis in a larger group.

The New York primary takes place on Tuesday April 19, but when Sanders was asked if his visit to the Vatican just days before the primary meant he was feeling confident about the election, Sanders said, "[It] simply means that this is an invitation from the Vatican, from a pope that I have enormous respect for on the need to have morality in our economy. We cannot simply be worshippers of greed and money. We have got to create an economy that works for all people and not just the few."

Sanders said he greatly admires the pontiff, who, like Sanders, has spoken out against inequality and the threat of global warming.

"Pope Francis in my mind has been an extraordinary leader in making the world conscious of the levels of income and wealth inequality that exist on our planet," Sanders said. "Obviously, he's also been a leader on climate change and making a point that, from a moral perspective, it is absolutely imperative that we leave this planet in a way that is healthy and habitable for future generations."

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2016/04/08/pope-francis-invites-bernie-sanders-to-speak-at-vatican/?intcmp=ob_article_footer_mobile&intcmp=obnetwork/
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Pope to church: Be more accepting of divorced Catholics, gays and lesbians

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/08/europe/vatican-pope-family/index.html?adkey=bn/

Pope Francis urges acceptance of gays, lesbians, nontraditional families

thewrap.com

Bernie Sanders Accepts Pope’s Invitation to Visit Vatican City




Trip will come shortly before Democratic contests in states like Pennsylvania, which has a large Catholic population

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has accepted the Pope’s invitation to visit Vatican City, and he will be traveling there next week.

According to Reuters, during his stay, Sanders will give a speech on moral economy on April 15.

“I am a big, big fan of the Pope,” Sanders said in an interview on MSNBC. “He’s trying to inject this sense of morality into how we do economics … and we need that absolutely desperately.”

See Video: Bernie Sanders Defends Calling Hillary Clinton 'Unqualified': 'They've Been Getting More Negative'

During a press conference later, Sanders told reporters that he hopes to meet Pope Francis.

“That is not yet clear, but that it something I very much would like to do,” he said. “The Pope’s schedule is determined by the Vatican but I would certainly be enthusiastic about that. … I think there is a possibility but that has not been scheduled.”

The news comes on the same day that the Pope made headlines for sending out a call for church officials to be more forgiving toward Catholics who have obtained a divorce and for the fair treatment and respect of the gay community.

The 79-year-old Pope Francis has been an advocate for the poor, and Sanders said Friday that he admires the pontiff for addressing the “worship of money, the greed that’s out there.” Sanders himself has made poverty a core issue of his campaign.

Also Read: Hillary Clinton Laughs Off Bernie Sanders' Claim She's 'Not Qualified' to Be President

The invitation to the Vatican comes at a good time for the Democratic candidate, who wants to expand his reach ahead of various contests this month, including in states like Pennsylvania, which has a huge Catholic population. Moreover, his trip will take place four days before the primary election in New York.

Over the past week, Sanders and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton questioned each other’s qualifications for the presidency. During a rally on Thursday, Sanders went after Clinton and called her “unqualified,” citing a Washington Post headline as proof that Hillary started the problem by attacking his own qualifications.

two totalitarian Brainbrothers!
The Witch-Doctor and Attila!

.... So everyone else, is cool with a religious leader of ONE Christian demonization, who has his own country & is technically a king, who interferes & interjects in world affairs & politics through out the world (Israel , UN, EU, US Congress etc) to invite a rich Jewish, self proclaimed Socialist, American presidential candidate to the Vatican to speak.


Okay then, nothing unusual or noteworthy here

Bye Now

World-Politics does create some unusual Bedfellows,doesn't it?

They invited Hillary.
Unfortunately, they couldn't accommodate her speaking fee nor her "OSHA" requirements of 10 gallon aquarium of green m&m's, and a 1 inch carpet of fetal blood while in residence of a house of worship to prevent spontaneous combustion when her feet touch sacred ground.

They also invited Trump, but he was too busy admiring their wall to actually speak to anyone else.

Ted Cruz refused an invitation due to the pope and all the male staff wearing dresses.

BloombergPolitics
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-04-08/sanders-accused-of-discourtesy-in-seeking-vatican-invitation
Academy Invitation
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A copy of the invitation to Sanders provided by the chancellor’s office is dated March 30 and signed by Sanchez Sorondo. The letter says he’s inviting the senator “on behalf of” Archer and the conference organizers. An announcement about Sanders’s participation, also under Sanchez Sorondo’s name, was released early Friday.
Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa are listed as speakers at the event on the academy’s website. Sanders isn’t listed as a speaker.
Sanders, who has made economic disparities the centerpiece of his campaign, earlier on Friday said, “This is an invitation from the Vatican, from a pope that I have enormous respect for in term of the level of consciousness that he’s raising on the need to have morality in our economy.”
Weaver said on Bloomberg Television’s “With All Due Respect” Friday that Sanders has “great affinity” for the pope and his message on the moral economy, adding that he has no intention of canceling the trip to continue campaigning in New York, which will be a pivotal contest in the Democratic race.
“Some things are more important than politics,” Weaver said. “When you get invited by the Vatican, I think you go.”
The office of the pope moved to distance the pontiff from the visit. Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, said Sanders had been invited “not by the pope but by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.” Lombardi told the Italian news agency Ansa: “For the moment there is no expectation that there will also be a meeting with the pope.”
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THE WASHINGTON POST
And then the Vatican called Bernie Sanders
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/and-then-the-vatican-called-bernie-sanders/2016/04/08/787d3e94-fdcf-11e5-9140-e61d062438bb_story.html
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Editor’s note: This column has been updated. It no longer includes references to whether Sen. Bernie Sanders requested a Vatican invitation.
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REUTERS
Papal official denies report Sanders invited himself to Vatican
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-vatican-idUSKCN0X5257

So Who Exactly Invited Bernie Sanders to the Vatican?

Joseph P. Williams

Some church officials take issue with the Vermont senator’s version of events.

After Sen. Bernie Sanders announced he'd been invited to a major Vatican-sponsored forum on poverty – a high-profile "get," taking place just ahead of the New York Democratic primary – a top Vatican official in charge of the event has called him out for a breach of diplomatic protocol.

Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, blasted the Vermont senator for "monumental discourtesy," suggesting he wrangled a back-door invitation that kept her in the dark, according to Bloomberg Politics.

Though he's made poverty and economic inequality a centerpiece of his campaign, Sanders' participation threatens to inject politics into a solemn, largely academic gathering, Archer told Bloomberg. The senator, she added, wasn't on anyone's official guest list.

"Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons," Archer said. "I think in a sense he may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly – not that he will."

Archer's account is "categorically untrue," Michael Briggs, a Sanders spokesman, told Bloomberg. "The invitation came to the senator from the Vatican."

Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the academy's chancellor, said he arranged for Sanders' invitation, although Bloomberg reports that the bishop "repeatedly declined to say who initiated the contact."

The public imbroglio over how Sanders was invited, and by whom, forced his campaign to defend itself on a day when it should have been hailing a development that could benefit him on several levels. A trip to Rome helps Sanders upgrade his thin diplomatic experience, has the potential for a photo op that will appeal to New York Catholics and energize secular admirers of Pope Francis, who has a parallel message on the evils of greed and poverty.

Sanders himself on Friday trumpeted the invitation, saying he was "very excited" to have received it.

"To me, this a source of real pride and excitement that I have been invited to speak to a major conference at the Vatican on how we can create a world economy that is moral and how we address the massive levels of wealth and income inequality that exist around the world, how we deal with unemployment, how we deal with poverty and how we create an economy that works for all people rather than the few," he told the New York Times.

The Vatican, however, said it had nothing to do with the invitation.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman told the Italian news agency Ansa that the Academy of Social Sciences invited Sanders, not Pope Francis, and that His Holiness doesn't plan to give the senator an audience.

"For the moment there is no expectation that there will also be a meeting with the pope," Lombardi said.

A letter about the conference, dated April 8 and posted on Sanders' website, has the official Vatican seal, but the letterhead is from the Academy of Social Sciences. It lists Sanders among several academics and world leaders who will be attending the conference.

"Our intention is socio-political in the highest sense of the term," the letter continues, because the academy was established by Pope John Paul II in 1994 "with the aim of promoting the study and progress of the social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law and the political sciences."

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-04-08/so-who-exactly-invited-bernie-sanders-to-the-vatican/

What was really behind Pope Francis' meeting with Bernie Sanders?
http://youtu.be/P4Ow3EWnciA/
01:35 - Rebel Media- Canada

Published on Apr 19, 2016

Ezra Levant of TheRebel.media talks about Pope Francis' meeting with socialist Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders -- the day before the big NY primary. MORE:

http://www.therebel.media/pope_francis_meeting_with_bernie_sanders/

"Why would Sanders drop everything to meet with the pope instead campaigning in one of the most important states...? Because New York has lots of (Roman) Catholics, Irish, Italian..."

4 minutes ago.

New York Democratic Primary Results: Hillary Clinton Is the Projected Winner

. http://gma.yahoo.com/york-democratic-primary-results-hillary-clinton-projected-winner-014202771--abc-news-topstories.html/

so,Bernie's Blessing by the Pope didn't work too well?