Vatican: Pope Didn't Invite Bernie Sanders
Controversy surrounds just who invited the Vermont senator to the Holy See, and whether he's doing it for political reasons.ROME—Not since Pope Francis’s ill-advised meeting with gay marriage opponent Kim Davis has there been so much “he said, she said” controversy about the pope meddling in American politics.
On Friday, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders announced that he was “very excited” about having just received an invitation to speak at a small, invitation-only scholarly conference at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences conference celebrating the 25th year anniversary of an encyclical “Centesimus Annus,” written by Pope John Paul II on the evils of capitalism.
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Margaret Archer, president of Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said that Sanders invited himself. “Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons,” Archer told Bloomberg. “He may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly -- not that he will.”
Not long after, Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences stepped in to dispute Archer’s statements. “"I deny that. It was not that way," Sorondo told Reuters “This is not true and she knows it. I invited him with her consensus.”
Sorondo later toned down his initial comments telling CNN the invitation should not be seen as an endorsement of the senator’s nomination. “It does not signify any support of the campaign," Sorondo said. "We want to establish a dialogue between North America and South America so we thought to invite a [U.S.] politician. The President of Bolivia will also be there. Perhaps the others (candidates) would have been interested but they did not request to come."
He also confirmed to CNN that Sanders had reached out to the Vatican first. “He has expressed an interest many times in the Pope's encyclical and it's clear that he has an interest in studying it,” Sorondo said. “It might have that effect, but we are not looking to support the campaign."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/10/vatican-pope-didn-t-invite-bernie-sanders.html
IMO, this whole controversy is much ado about nothing. I'm only posting this article to clarify that Sanders approached the Vatican first and then the invitation was proffered, it didn't come out of the blue. Either way, it's not that big of an issue.
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It's circus time. 
TBH I'm glad it's Bernie who put his foot in it this time and not Bill or Hill. But boy what a food fight. 
The invitation was made to Sanders after he expressed interest in attending. He should go and have fun. I agree that Sanders going to a conference held at the Vatican does not mean that the Pope is endorsing him. Ditto if it had been Hillary who attended instead of Sanders. Popes try not to be seen as supporting foreign political candidates.
I would love to meet Pope Francis, he's the best Pope of my lifetime. I would be thrilled to meet him. I don't blame Sanders for wanting to meet him. Although, according to the article, he's not attending the conference. He may stop by and greet the attendees. Who knows?
But at the end of the day he picked a funny time to take a Roman holiday. And that will be how this episode will be remembered if he's lucky.
p.s. Welcome to DU! 
lol
I see nothing wrong in Sanders attending a conference at the Vatican.
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They don't post such nasty things about Trump, it's like Bernie is the anti-Christ for wanting to go to the Vatican.
At this point I can't tell some of them apart from Trump supporters, their hatred is that unhinged.
And well said, you should make that an op in the Bernie group!
But, I really am not comfortable posting threads in private groups. I don't think it's fair or good for the forum to have protected conversations with people, while others who cannot participate in that group, can read things we say that may upset them.
I don't participate much at protected forums like that either, except here...where we are pretty much protected from Republican blow back. I guess I have my limits on what I'm willing to expose myself to.
But here on DU, we are supposed to be a family...all of us...working toward the same goal, even if we differ somewhat in much of it, and range from very liberal to conservative. I feel it is too divisive to allow private groups to lock people out because they don't hold the same beliefs or support the same candidate or issues.
It's just me. I think I'll stick with the more open places.
