President Obama is scheduled to have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI today, three days after a papal encyclical praised the work of credit unions.
"If love is wise, it can find ways of working in accordance with provident and just expediency, as is illustrated in significant ways by much of the experience of credit unions," Benedict wrote in the encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," or "Charity in Truth."
Benedict, who was one of the first leaders to congratulate Obama after his election, and Obama have areas where they strongly agree and others where they are at odds.
Both men agree that wealthier nations should do more to aid the poor and want capitalism to not forget the needs of working people. They have different views on abortion and on the nature of government funding for stem cell research.
Benedict isn't the first pontiff to extol the ability of credit unions to help people during hard economic times. With the world still reeling from effects of World War II, in a November 15, 1946 speech on the importance of farmers and rural values, Pope Pius XII said: "You farmers certainly do not desire any such conflict; you want every part of the national economy to have its share; however, you also want to keep your share. Therefore, you must have the help of sensible political planning and sound legislation. But your principal help must come from yourselves, from your cooperative unions, especially from your credit unions. Perhaps, then, the recovery of the whole economy may come from the field of agriculture."
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