Pope Benedict, Obama Talk: Disagree on Abortion, Agree on Marriage

Thursday, January 22, 2009
By Jim Meyers

Pope Benedict XVI has communicated with Barack Obama twice since the Democrat won the White House — but the first message almost never got through.

The Pope telephoned Obama shortly after Election Day to congratulate him on his electoral success, but the Obama staffer receiving the call didn’t believe it was actually the Pontiff on the line and wouldn’t put the call through.

Benedict was eventually able to get through, however, and he and the president-elect had a “cordial” conversation mainly about cultural issues, according to a Bush administration source with close ties to the Vatican. the rest

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