Organizer says Sanders was Discourteous in Seeking Invite to Vatican Conference – Update: Organizer’s Account Contradicted

Update: Sanders spokesman Michael Shank denied Archer’s version of what happened, and claimed there was no angling for a spot before the March 30 invite arrived. In a copy of the invitation provided by the Sanders campaign, Archer was listed as one of the people officially requesting Sanders’ presence. 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.

We recently shared the big news that Bernie Sanders would be attending a conference at the Vatican on building a moral economy.

“I am a big, big fan of the pope…” Sanders said on NBC when the news broke of his invitation. “Obviously there are areas where we disagree, on women’s rights, on gay rights. But he has played an unbelievable role of injecting a moral consequence into the economy.”

While Sanders said he was invited – that the invitation came from the Vatican -, not all players agree on how the invitation came about:

A senior Vatican official accused Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of showing a “monumental discourtesy” in his lobbying for an invitation to a church-sponsored conference on economic and environmental issues for political purposes.

The head of the academy said Friday that Sanders sought the invitation and that put an inappropriate political cast on the gathering.

“Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons,” Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the conference Sanders will attend, said in a telephone interview. “I think in a sense he may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly — not that he will.”

After linking Archer’s language to a potential disagreement with Sanders on matters of conflation, Kevin Drum at Mother Jones takes a step back and writes,

I guess someone will have to ask Archer just what Bernie did that was so monumentally discourteous. Was it merely asking for an invitation in the first place? Is it the fact that Bernie is pro-choice? Or something more? We need someone to dig into the Vatican gossip machine and let us know.

With President Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa of Ecuador also participating in the conference, with controversial policy positions of their own, it’s difficult to imagine that the event wouldn’t have some political flavor before Sanders was scheduled to participate. The only thing to learn is whether an organizer reached out to Sanders first, or if someone from Sanders’ team reached out to the organizer(s). Could Sanders’ (team) have reached out first, and still have been invited? Yes. Is Archer correct and telling the full story? Let’s wait and learn as we’ll have to see who says what next.

Of course, conservative outlets are embracing Archer’s rebuke – as if Sanders speaking is indefensible and in order to keep the culture war flame alive.

So, again, let’s see who says what next!

Update: Sanders spokesman Michael Shank denied Archer’s version of what happened, and claimed there was no angling for a spot before the March 30 invite arrived. In a copy of the invitation provided by the Sanders campaign, Archer was listed as one of the people officially requesting Sanders’ presence. 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.