Breaking: Bernie Sanders Invited to Vatican for Conference on Building a Moral Economy

UPDATE: Vatican organizer Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said Bernie Sanders was discourteous in lobbying for an invite, that he made the first move in the process. The Sanders campaign rejected Archer’s account of the events leading up to the announcement of Sanders’ invitation. Moreover, Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, and the head of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event, said Archer’s account is not true – that it was Sorondo’s own idea to invite Sanders. “This is not true and she knows it. I invited [Sanders] with [Archer’s] consensus,” said Sorondo, who is senior to Archer.

The Vermont Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders will be participating in a conference jointly sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies titled, “Centesimus Annus 25 Years Later.”

Additional speakers and participants include H.Em. Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga and President Evo Morales.

More on this as we learn about it! Here’s the conference booklet.

UPDATE: Vatican organizer Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, said Bernie Sanders was discourteous in lobbying for an invite, that he made the first move in the process. The Sanders campaign rejected Archer’s account of the events leading up to the announcement of Sanders’ invitation. Moreover, Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, and the head of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event, said Archer’s account is not true – that it was Sorondo’s own idea to invite Sanders. “This is not true and she knows it. I invited [Sanders] with [Archer’s] consensus,” said Sorondo, who is senior to Archer.