Obama is 'hugely impressed' by Antipope Francis' pronouncements

Politico.com Jennifer Epstein President Obama has been “hugely impressed” by Pope Francis’s public statements. It’s “not because of any particular issue” but because “he seems somebody who lives out the teachings of Christ,” Obama said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC. Pope Francis has “incredible humility, an incredible sense of empathy to the least of these, to the poor,” the president said. “And he's also somebody who's, I think, first and foremost, thinking about how to embrace people as opposed to push them away, how to find what's good in them as opposed to condemn them.” The pope has made recent comments arguing that the Catholic Church should focus on more than just a few hot-button social issues. In an interview last month, he said he “cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptives.”