Msgr Figueiredo on Pope Francis-Obama meeting

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will tomorrow meet with United States President Barack Obama in the Apostolic Palace. It will be the second time President Obama has been received at the Vatican, after an audience with Pope Benedict XVI on July 10, 2009.

The meeting comes as many Catholic institutions are fighting the Obama Administration’s “contraception mandate” imposed by the Affordable Care Act, which would compel many Catholic ministries to participate in providing employees with abortifacient drugs and devices, sterilization, and contraception.

However, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has also recently credited the Administration for its work to promote the Middle East peace process and support its efforts at immigration reform.

“I really think the Church today, and also spurred by Pope Francis, is looking for points we have in common,” said Msgr. Anthony J. Figueiredo, Director of the Rome-based Pontifical North American College’s Institute for Continuing Theological Education. “Pope Francis has obviously emphasized social questions today: Poverty, hunger, peace in the Middle East, peace in Syria. The United States looks to the Holy See to be this moral focus, this moral compass.”

Msgr. Figueiredo told Vatican Radio that does not mean contentious issues will not be discussed.

“Certainly, the Holy See is very concerned about questions, for example, of religious freedom,” he said.

“It is very concerned about ethical issues such as the destruction of the family by laws which propose gay marriage or ‘liberty’ in so many ways. We believe in something else: We believe that there is a law placed in our hearts by God, and no one has the right to change that law,” Msgr. Figueiredo said. “In fact, when one lives that law, one finds true freedom and true joy. And that’s what the Church wants, and certainly that is what this Pope wants.”

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