Skip to main content

Obama Meets with Pope at Vatican

By VOA News
10 July 2009
Pope Benedict XVI(R)walks with US President Barack Obama during audience at Vatican, 10 Jul 2009
Pope Benedict XVI(R)walks with US President Barack Obama during audience at Vatican, 10 Jul 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict have met at the Vatican for wide-ranging talks on international issues as well as human rights.



A Vatican statement released after the meeting listed the defense and promotion of human life and the right to freedom of conscience as leading issues. It said their discussions also included immigration, the Middle East peace process, and the global economic crisis and its implications for food security and development aid, especially for Africa and Latin America.

Mr. Obama stopped at the Vatican following the summit in Italy of leaders of the world's eight richest countries.






A Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, told reporters Mr. Obama assured the pontiff of his determination to reduce the number of abortions in the United States. At the start of the meeting, the pope was overheard asking Mr. Obama about the G8 summit, which the president called very productive.

The pope and Mr. Obama are known to disagree on such issues as abortion, but they do agree on such matters as helping the poor.

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama joined them toward the end of the 25-minute meeting. The pope also privately met with the president's two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

During an exchange of gifts, the pope presented Mr. Obama with a mosaic picture of St. Peter's Square and two books on the church's view of bioethics and the sanctity of life. The president gave the pontiff a stole that once draped the body of St. John Newmann, one of America's first saints.

Mr. Obama is now on his way to Ghana, on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


Rate Me on BlogHop.com!

the best
pretty good
okay
pretty bad
the worst
help?

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Stocks Surge to Highest Level of Year on Housing News

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...
Post a Comment
Read more

World Bank raises China growth forecasts

The World Bank boosted its growth forecast for China and said rising inflation should level off but warned Beijing needs to make the economy less reliant on trade to sustain its expansion. In a quarterly update released Wednesday, the bank said China's politically contentious trade surplus is likely to swell further in 2011, though it cautioned that weak global demand means Beijing shouldn't rely so heavily on exports. The bank raised its 2010 growth outlook from 9.5 percent to 10 percent and its growth outlook for next year from 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent. Growth eased in the third quarter to 9.6 percent from 10.3 percent the previous quarter as Beijing tried to steer it to a more manageable level. "Growth is likely to moderate somewhat more in 2011 and the medium term to a still robust pace," the bank said. Despite a largely upbeat outlook, the bank said Beijing needs to do more to boost domestic demand and cut reliance on exports and investment. Comm...
Post a Comment
Read more