UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
President Obama will finally meet Pope Francis on March 27, over a year after Francis’ unexpected election. “The president looks forward to discussing with Pope Francis their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality,” the White House indicated. Surprisingly, Francis has already met with Russia’s leader, with whom Obama currently has tensions over Syria and US wiretapping, among other matters.
As to the overall importance of poverty and inequality, the world’s richest 85 people control the same amount of wealth as half the world’s population, as recently reported by the anti-poverty charity Oxfam. That means the world’s poorest 3.55 billion people must live on what the richest 85 possess.
Given (1) their similar advocacy for the poor, (2) the key role of family planning on alleviating poverty, and (3) their differences on contraception morality matters, Obama and Francis have much to discuss. This is especially the case since they both seemingly have ties to, and influence over, some of the 85 billionaire plutocrats who at times seem to dominate internationally through their targeted contributions both political and religious organizations. First, President Obama and Pope Francis must establish mutual trust, which has apparently been adversely impacted by Vatican political support for US conservatives and by US bishops’ continuing unaccountablity for mismanaging predatory priests, as well as Obama’s disagreements with US bishops on contraception, gay marriage and other matters.
Significantly, since over 100,000 US children, including some from Chicago where in the late ’80′s Obama worked among the “sheep” at eight poorer Catholic parishes, are estimated so far to have been sexually abused by Catholic priests, the subject of curtailing priest abuse will likely be on the agenda. Also included among the 100,000 US abuse survivors are some from the Minneapolis Archdiocese, where Fr. Kevin McDonough had been Vicar General for some years. His brother, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, in 2012 specifically referred to Kevin publicly before a group of US bishops as follows: “… I’m thankful for the counsel and wisdom of my older brothers—Bill, who was a priest, and Kevin, who is a priest.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.