Bernie Sanders went on a few TV shows last week to announce that he was invited to the Vatican to speak.
On MSNBC-
Sanders told MSNBC earlier on Friday that he had been “very moved by the invitation” to the Vatican, adding: “I am a big fan of the Pope.”
To the Washington Post-
"I think the Vatican has been aware of the fact that, in many respects, the pope’s views and my views are very much related," Sanders told The Washington Post. "
On the View-
“You are meeting with the Pope?” “Yep”
Then the Pope’s office at the Vatican stated the invitation did not come from the pope and no meeting was planned.
The office of the pope moved to distance the pontiff from the visit. Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, said Sanders had been invited “not by the pope but by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.” Lombardi told the Italian news agency Ansa: “For the moment there is no expectation that there will also be a meeting with the pope.”www.bloomberg.com/…
Which also included a dispute between the President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Margaret Archer
“Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons,” Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the conference, said in a telephone interview. “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.”
and the Chancellor of the Academy, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo
Not long after, Monsignor Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences stepped in to dispute Archer’s statements. “I deny that. It was not that way," Sánchez Sorondo told Reuters. “This is not true and she knows it. I invited him with her consensus.”
Now Bishop Sorondo has expanded his explanation.
Sánchez 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," Sánchez 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,” Sánchez Sorondo said. “It might have that effect, but we are not looking to support the campaign." www.thedailybeast.com/…
Does this matter? It appeared to many in the Clinton camp that the whole point of the trip was to imply the Pope Francis had somehow endorsed Senator Sanders.
Was the Senators Sanders intent? Only he knows that. He is interested in income inequality. He may also as Bishop Sorondo explained have a interest in the Pope’s encyclical and wanted to attend to study it further.