White House invites 15000 for Pope welcoming ceremony

One of the invitees, retired Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, made history by becoming the first openly gay episcopal bishop in 2003 and subsequently the first to divorce his gay partner in 2014, after having previously separated from his wife of 14 years.

If congressional Republicans and Democrats can “sit down together in good faith and broker a compromise”, Earnest said that he is confident that he will be back at the podium telling the White House press corps that “this piece of legislation is not ideal but the president will sign it because he knows it’s good for the economy”, he said.

The “devil will be in the details”, and the White House and congressional Republicans “will have disagreements”, he said.

Mateo Williamson, a cross-dressing woman and former co-chairman of the Transgender Caucus for Dignity US , has also received an invitation to the White House for Pope Francis’ visit. On Thursday, the Pope will address Congress at a ticket-only event. “Based on your demonstrated and notorious compassion, I suspect you will not be offended by a gay bishop and a feisty nun somewhere in the crowd of 10,000 admirers”.

“We didn’t see a lot of the sunny optimism that was typical of the president whose library they stood in”, Earnest said. “But as far as I am concerned, that does not keep me from admiring you and praying for you and your ministry”.

“Despite the perennial doom and gloom that I guess is inevitably part of a presidential campaign, America is winning right now”, Obama said at a meeting of the Business Roundtable. “And I doubt that you need your colleagues in the Vatican to be so protective of you”.