Bernie Sanders says he was ‘honoured’ to have met the Pope
Senator Bernie Sanders claps with a song during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Dome event on January 21, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty)
Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has said he was “honoured” to have met Pope Francis.
Pope Francis earlier this month released a long-awaited report on ‘the family’ which was initially expected to relax teachings on sexuality – but actually reaffirmed all of the church’s actively anti-LGBT teachings.
In place of any changes to church doctrine, the Pope insisted that the Catholic Church would never consider recognition of “homosexual unions”, and added that gay people should receive “assistance” to bring them back to normality.
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The Catholic leader wrote: “As for proposals to place unions between homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”
Now Sanders has confirmed that he met with the Pope, saying he was “honoured” to have met with him.
Sanders told Associated Press: “I told him that I was incredibly appreciative of the incredible role that he is playing in this planet in discussing issues about the need for an economy based on morality, not greed.
“It was a real honour for me, for my wife and I to spend some time with him. I think he is one of the extraordinary figures not only in the world today but in modern world history.”
A statement from the Sanders campaign when he was originally offered an invitation, said: “Pope Francis has made clear that we must overcome ‘the globalisation of indifference’ in order to reduce economic inequalities, stop financial corruption and protect the natural environment.
“That is our challenge in the United States and in the world.”
The Vatican recently strong-armed France into ditching plans to appoint an openly gay ambassador.
