Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks in Wisconsin on Saturday. The Associated Press

After Sen. Bernie Sanders announced he'd been invited to a major Vatican-sponsored forum on poverty – a high-profile "get," taking place just ahead of the New York Democratic primary – a top Vatican official in charge of the event has called him out for a breach of diplomatic protocol.

Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, blasted the Vermont senator for "monumental discourtesy," suggesting he wrangled a back-door invitation that kept her in the dark, according to Bloomberg Politics.



Though he's made poverty and economic inequality a centerpiece of his campaign, Sanders' participation threatens to inject politics into a solemn, largely academic gathering, Archer told Bloomberg. The senator, she added, wasn't on anyone's official guest list.

"Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons," Archer said. "I think in a sense he may be going for the Catholic vote but this is not the Catholic vote and he should remember that and act accordingly – not that he will."

Archer's account is "categorically untrue," Michael Briggs, a Sanders spokesman, told Bloomberg. "The invitation came to the senator from the Vatican."

Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the academy's chancellor, said he arranged for Sanders' invitation, although Bloomberg reports that the bishop "repeatedly declined to say who initiated the contact."

The public imbroglio over how Sanders was invited, and by whom, forced his campaign to defend itself on a day when it should have been hailing a development that could benefit him on several levels. A trip to Rome helps Sanders upgrade his thin diplomatic experience, has the potential for a photo op that will appeal to New York Catholics and energize secular admirers of Pope Francis, who has a parallel message on the evils of greed and poverty.

Sanders himself on Friday trumpeted the invitation, saying he was "very excited" to have received it.



"To me, this a source of real pride and excitement that I have been invited to speak to a major conference at the Vatican on how we can create a world economy that is moral and how we address the massive levels of wealth and income inequality that exist around the world, how we deal with unemployment, how we deal with poverty and how we create an economy that works for all people rather than the few," he told the New York Times.

The Vatican, however, said it had nothing to do with the invitation.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman told the Italian news agency Ansa that the Academy of Social Sciences invited Sanders, not Pope Francis, and that His Holiness doesn't plan to give the senator an audience.

"For the moment there is no expectation that there will also be a meeting with the pope," Lombardi said.

A letter about the conference, dated April 8 and posted on Sanders' website, has the official Vatican seal, but the letterhead is from the Academy of Social Sciences. It lists Sanders among several academics and world leaders who will be attending the conference.

"Our intention is socio-political in the highest sense of the term," the letter continues, because the academy was established by Pope John Paul II in 1994 "with the aim of promoting the study and progress of the social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law and the political sciences."



