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NEW YORK (AP) - Organizers of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States next week have taken great pains to keep him out of presidential politics.
But the Roman Catholic teaching he's expected to emphasize — on abortion, human rights and other issues — has policy consequences that partisans will inevitably spin for their own ends.
"The pope will probably speak in broad enough and general enough terms that anybody who is determined to read endorsement of his or her political position will find an endorsement there," said Russell Shaw, a former spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. "But when and if that happens, it is going to be people reading things into the pope's remarks that aren't there."
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