Hollande sees common ground with pope on global issues

[onehandle]

Source: AFP

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Vatican City (AFP) - President Francois Hollande spoke of "convergence" on international issues after talks with Pope Francis Friday amid a swirling scandal over the French leader's love life and divisions in France over hot-button issues like abortion and euthanasia.

An embattled Hollande shook hands with a glum-looking Francis at the start of the private audience, after which the Vatican said the two had discussed "constructive cooperation for the common good". "Family, bioethics and the respect of religious communities" were among the issues addressed, the Vatican said in a statement.

Hollande, who hailed the pope's "radiant personality", said there had been "convergence on the big international issues."

The 59-year-old said he and Francis had the "same concern" about the status of Christian minorities in the Middle East, and the risk of an interreligious conflict in the Central African Republic. The Vatican said Hollande and Francis had also discussed international issues including poverty, development, immigration and the environment.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/france-39-embattled-hollande-meet-pope-woo-angry-041444589.html

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His (Hollande's) diplomatic overture will be made no easier by lawmakers' decision this week to greenlight a change in the country's abortion laws, effectively making it easier for a woman to terminate a pregnancy.

Anger among staunch Catholics has also been fuelled by plans for the legalisation of assisted suicide -- with French bishops speaking out to condemn a topic Hollande promised to support in his electoral campaign.

Relations between part of the electorate and the government soured notably last year when France legalised gay weddings, despite hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets to hold huge protests...

...Although the pope, 77, has called for "mercy" toward gays, divorced people and women who have abortions, Vatican experts say Francis is a conservative at heart....