SANDERS TRIP TO VATICAN CONFERENCE CAUSES DUST-UP

Bernie Sanders announced Friday he will
attend a Vatican City conference next week,
touching off a long-distance dispute over
whether the Democratic presidential candidate
had elbowed his way into the summit.
Bloomberg News quoted a senior Vatican
official alleging the Vermont senator sought
the invitation, accusing him of “monumental
discourtesy” in doing so.
But another senior Vatican source told Fox
News that is not quite true.
Sanders did receive a written invitation dated
March 30 from Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez
Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy
of Social Sciences where Sanders will speak.
There are varying reports, though, over who
approached whom.
Margaret Archer, president of PASS, told
Bloomberg that “Sanders made the first move,
for the obvious reasons,” while accusing him of
going after the Catholic vote.

But the Sanders campaign called the claim
“categorically untrue.”
Sorondo, speaking to Bloomberg, apparently did
not say who initiated the contact – the Vatican
or Sanders. Yet later speaking with Reuters,
Sorondo denied that Sanders had invited
himself.
Further, he told the Associated Press he
extended the invitation to Sanders because he
seems to have a "real interest" in studying the
papal documents issued by the pope. He did
not issue invitations to the other presidential
candidates.
"I don't see the other candidates quoting the
pope in their campaign. I don't know if the
other candidates are interested in the
documents of the pope," he said.
Regardless of who made the first move, the
senior source who spoke with Fox News stressed
that the invite did not come from Pope Francis
himself.
The source told Fox News the Vatican is eager
to stay out of the presidential campaign --
especially with pro-life Catholics expressing
unease on social media that the pro-choice
Sanders is visiting.
"Is that going to thrill us? No," the Vatican
source told Fox News of Sanders' stance on
abortion
It was not clear yet whether Sanders, the first
Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary,
would meet with the pope during his trip.
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said "if the
opportunity arises he would be delighted to
meet with the pope" but Sanders has not
received an official invitation from the
Catholic leader.
"The moral imperative that (the pope) is
bringing to this discussion is absolutely
extraordinary and absolutely what the world
needs. These are issues that I have been
dealing with for years," Sanders said in a
phone interview with The Associated Press.
Attendees of the Vatican conference will
include Presidents Evo Morales of Bolivia and
Rafael Correa of Ecuador, along with Cardinal
Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, a
member of the academy, and Columbia
University professor Jeffrey Sachs, an adviser
to the United Nations on environmental and
sustainability issues.
The meeting will mark the 25th anniversary of
Pope John Paul II's encyclical Centesimus
Annus, a high-level teaching document which
advocated for economic and social justice and
environmental sustainability.
Sanders will be speaking at the conference of
the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, an
advisory group comparable to a think tank that
the pope has appointed to guide him on a wide
range of public policy issues.
The Rev. Thomas Reese, an analyst with the
National Catholic Reporter and author of
"Inside the Vatican: The Politics and
Organization of the Catholic Church," said it
was unusual for a U.S. presidential candidate
to be invited to participate in such an event in
the middle of a campaign. European politicians
and experts attend frequently, in part because
they can more easily travel to Rome, he said.
But Reese cautioned that the invitation should
not be interpreted in any way as an
endorsement from the pope.
"Certainly the last thing Pope Francis wants to
do is get involved in American presidential
politics. He's made clear that he doesn't even
want to interfere in Italian politics," Reese
said.