Recap: Obama's meeting with the Pope

Plenty of encouraging signs here, let's go through them.

First, the official Vatican take:

In the course of their cordial exchanges the conversation turned first of all to questions which are in the interests of all and which constitute a great challenge for the future of every nation and for the true progress of peoples, such as the defence and promotion of life and the right to abide by one’s conscience.

Reference was also made to immigration with particular attention to the matter of reuniting families.

The meeting focused as well upon matters of international politics, especially in light of the outcome of the G8 Summit. The conversation also dealt with the peace process in the Middle East, on which there was general agreement, and with other regional situations. Certain current issues were then considered, such as dialogue between cultures and religions, the global economic crisis and its ethical implications, food security, development aid especially for Africa and Latin America, and the problem of drug trafficking. Finally, the importance of educating young people everywhere in the value of tolerance was highlighted. (source)

Conscience clauses and life issues front-and-center. Good, good. These are, of course, the areas of greatest disagreement so they deserve to be given especial attention, in addition to their objective importance.

Hilary White, LSN's Rome Correspondent, gives us some more useful tidbits:

Pope Benedict gave US President Barack Obama a surprise gift of the Vatican bioethics document "Dignitatis Personae," and discussed the ethics of abortion and embryo research in their first meeting in Rome this afternoon.

... At the end of the meeting, Pope Benedict told the president, "A blessing on all your work and also for you." The president responded, "Thank you very much. We look forward to a very strong relationship."

... The Vatican has made unusual accommodations for the visit, scheduling it in the late afternoon before Obama proceeds to a visit to Africa and allowing extensive live video coverage. The tradition-conscious Vatican normally schedules such meetings for midday.

Now how about Obama's response? Here also there are some encouraging signs:

"Oh, what we discussed earlier," said Obama, referring to their closed-door discussions. "I will have some reading to do on the plane."

Obama was given the instruction to help him better understand the church's position on bioethics, Msgr. Georg Ganswein, papal secretary, told journalists in the pool covering the visit.

Also:

Father Lombardi said he spoke with the pope after the meeting and the pope "seemed extremely satisfied with how the meeting went."

He said the pope found Obama to be "attentive and ready to listen."

"The president explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concerns on moral issues," he said.

Note: reducing abortions. period. none of this deception "reduce the need for abortions" language.

Most of these important details are also being picked up by the mainstream coverage.

Now ... we wait and see. Obama has made promises to the pope about reducing the number of abortions, about listening to the Church's moral teaching, and about having a strong relationship with the Vatican. 

I pray that he holds fast to these promises.