Following the end of the G8 summit that he was attending in the Central Italian city of L'Aquila, US President Obama paid a visit to the Vatican for a brief private audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
Whilst the two men, meeting for the first time, are known to have fundamental differences on some key issues, such as abortion and stem cell research, there is also much on which they agree. In particular the pressing need to alleviate global poverty, the desire for a lasting peace in the Middle East and a wish to improve relations with the Muslim world.
Since his election President Obama has found himself at odds with many American Catholic bishops over his decisions to lift the ban on federal funding for both stem cell research and groups who support abortion. Today's meeting was designed in part to demonstrate that differences on those issues need not prevent dialogue and cooperation on matters upon which there is agreement.
Following the meeting between the two men the President's wife Michelle Obama was introduced to the Pope. The
London Times reports that Mrs Obama had earlier shown the couple's daughters Malia and Sasha around St Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The two girls also briefly met with the Holy Father.
The two men exchanged gifts and the significance of the gift that he received from Pope Benedict was not lost on the President. Dignitas Personae is a Vatican document which the
Huffington Post describes as covering the field of bioethics. It is said to reinforce the Catholic Church's opposition to the use of embryos for stem cell research, in-vitro fertilization and cloning. It was a gift which the President told his host he would be reading during his flight to Ghana. He was due to leave for the African nation after his visit to the Vatican.
Despite the friendliness of the meeting the Vatican still seemed eager to emphasize the issues on which the gulf between the two men appears to be widest. As the statement they issued after President Obama's departure apparently confirms:
In the course of their cordial exchanges, the conversation turned first of all to questions which are in the interest of all and which constitute a great challenge ... such as the defense and promotion of life and the right to abide by one's conscience
With many Catholic Bishops in the US unhappy with the positive rating given to the President by the Vatican's own newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, there is clearly some way to go to heal any part of the rift that attracted much attention when the President was presented with an honorary degree by the Notre Dame Catholic University, which is near South Bend in Indiana. The Catholic Bishop for the area actually boycotted the presentation ceremony held in May in protest at the President's views and policies.
