President Barrack Obama’s visit with Pope Benedict XVI gives us hope that he wants to keep open the doors to those with whom he has major disagreements. He is playing the game like politicians should play it, of course.
Obviously he did not change the pope’s opposition to abortion and stem cell research. And he won’t change his own approval of government support for them since much of his support in the election came from Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups.
The Vatican has had eight years of common ground on those issues when George W. Bush was president. Of course, before then, there were eight years of disagreement on them with President Bill Clinton.
Obama did say he would try to reduce the number of abortions in the U. S. And he said he would read a Vatican document on bioethics that supports the pope’s opposition to killing human embryos for stem cell research.
We don’t expect the president to reverse his pro-choice stand but he does seem to be softening his position. Most people in this country oppose the killing of unborn human embryos and babies.
If the people intensified their opposition, the president may be encouraged to take an even more neutral stand. And that could lead to government policies that would discourage the killing of unborn human life.
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