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President Obama: Expect a 'robust conscience clause'

President Obama promised a “robust conscience clause” in a 41-minute meeting with some members of the Catholic press this morning, reports Catholic News Agency.

The president met in the White House’s Roosevelt Room with eight members of the press who were picked by the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Initiatives. Attendees included respresentatives of the National Catholic Register, Avvenire/Vatican Radio, Commonweal, America and Catholic Digest.

Obama began the meeting with brief remarks, describing his conversation with the Holy Father just after his election, the National Catholic Register reported. The president said he looks forward to his meeting with Pope Benedict next week, especially to discuss immigration, climate change and the Middle East.

President Obama said he views the Holy See in some ways like a government, with whom he will sometimes agree and sometimes disagree, but also as more than a government, because of the influential role played by the Church across America and throughout the world.

Father Owen Kearns, editor in chief and publisher of The National Catholic Register, observed, “The most noteworthy thing during the meeting was his dispelling of what you might call the expectation of the worst regarding conscience clauses.”

Obama told those gathered that he had only reversed the Bush-administration’s conscience provisions because “it hadn't been properly reviewed” and there were questions about “how broad it might be and what its manifestations would be once implemented.”

Yet Obama assured people that “my underlying position has always been consistent, which is I'm a believer in conscience clauses.”

Once the review of the “hundreds of thousands” of comments on the clause takes place, “there will be a robust conscience clause in place.” He promised that it will not be weaker than the previous one added by the Bush administration, but admitted, “It may not meet the criteria of every possible critic.”

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TAGS: USA President Obama robust conscience clause Catholic press conscience provisions

[07/05/2009]

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