Pope Benedict Gives Obama "Dignitas Personae" on Bioethics and Human Life

During their visit at the Vatican today, Pope Benedict XVI gave a gifts to President Obama, including his latest encyclical “Caritas in Veritate”, or Charity in Truth, and “Dignitas Personae”, a 2008 Vatican document on the dignity of the person. Along with those gifts came an admonishment to defend and promote the right to human life. (Official Vatican statement on Papal audience with Obama)

“Dignitas Personae” deals in great detail with the bioethics of in vetro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injections, freezing and destroying embryos, human cloning, stem cell research and other applicable topics.

President Obama, doing better with gift giving for foreign leaders, gave Pope Benedict a stole that was drapped upon the body of St. John Neumann from 1988 to 2007.

I saw this quote in response to the Obama gift in a Catholic news site discussing the stole: 

“In a previous age the idea of an Emperor investing a Pope with the sign of priestly authority (i.e., a stole) would be taken as definite sign of the subjection of the Church to the secular authority.”

“Well said. Maybe it is the Obama administration’s attempt to divide and conquer the Catholic Church in America,” wrote another commenter.

Well said indeed.

Comments

[Charles]

I suppose you would have applauded a gift of an iPod instead. What exactly could President Obama do that you would applaud? If he didn't go to the Vatican you would accuse him of being a Muslim and anti-Catholic. He does go and you accuse him of trying to subject the Church to his will. Maybe you ought to read Caritas in Veritate and realize that the Republican Party is in league with exactly the economic forces that Benedict is condemning.

The unfortunate problem for Catholics is that they either have to vote for a party that supports a woman's right to control her own reproductive system, or for a party that encourages and supports rampant greed that causes the suffering and death of millions. Obviously, Dignitas wins over Caritas even though Jesus had little or nothing to say about Dignitas.

[Norm]

Where did Charles come from? Obama Land.

I'm a proud Catholic, proud of my faith...a proud Catholic, not so proud of my Church...but they'll come around again; they always do.
...and I never vote for a party! I think you got your religions a little mixed up.
It's the Democtatic Religion that votes for and "encourages and supports rampant greed that causes the suffering and death of millions." Just look at the UN and the millions of deaths they have caused...all supported by Democrats and some Republicans.

[Amy Proctor]

Charles, don't get me wrong, the gift from Obama (or whoever picked it out) was a good gift. I simply pointed out what a Catholic might notice about the gift.

I don't hide the fact that I don't like Barack Obama. I don't like what he believes in, his theology, ideology and particularly what he is doing to our country. It's nothing personal. He's a very likable man, but that doesn't make him a good president.

By the way, did you like anything Bush did?

[Hawkeye]

Amy,

The key phrase in the passage you quoted is "In a previous age..."

Clearly we are not in Kansas anymore.

Best regards...

[Gary]

Here ya go, Charles. It's a virtual kleenex to wipe your nose and dry your eyes. No Whiners, please.

[J Rob]

And President He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Middle-Named was so impressed by the gift he appointed a forced abortion advocate to the non-Constitutional position of science czar