Pope Francis subtly rebuked President Obama’s record on religious-liberty issues in his opening statement at the White House this morning.
Roman Catholics want “a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive,” the pope said to Obama, before offering a warning. “With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty,” Pope Francis said. “That freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions. And, as my brothers, the United States bishops, have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.”
Obama anticipated the pope’s comments in his own speech. “You remind us that people are only truly free when they can practice their faith freely,” he said. “Here in the United States, we cherish religious liberty. It was the basis for so much of what brought us together. . . . But around the world, at this very moment, children of God, including Christians, are targeted and even killed because of their faith. Believers are prevented from gathering at their places of worship. The faithful are imprisoned, and churches are destroyed. So we stand with you in defense of religious freedom and interfaith dialogue, knowing that people everywhere must be able to live out their faith free from fear and free from intimidation.”
The U.S. bishops’ list of “current threats to religious freedom” features two Obama policies, both promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS): Obamacare’s contraception mandate, and the 2011 decision by DHHS to deny Catholic groups that fight human trafficking a federal grant because they do not refer women to abortion providers. “I think it’s a sad manipulation of a process to promote a pro-abortion agenda,” Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the conference, said of the latter policy at the time.
— Joel Gehrke is a political reporter for National Review.