Pope invites Bernie Sanders to Vatican to speak about "social, economic, and environmental" https://t.co/kXJoVNkmus pic.twitter.com/JFaVDrMtgf

— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) April 8, 2016

In case you hadn’t heard, Bernie Sanders will be speaking at a conference on economic and social issues at theVatican next week.

Now, depending on who you ask, Sanders either invited himself:

Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons, Margaret Archer, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the conference, said in a telephone interview. 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 said that while she quite liked Sanders program on paper, his failure to contact her first is a breach of protocol. The president of the academy organizing this event has not been contacted with monumental discourtesy, she said, referring to herself.

Or he was invited:

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was invited to speak at an April 15 Vatican event by the Vatican, a senior papal official said on Friday, denying a report that Sanders had invited himself.

“I deny that. It was not that way,” Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo told Reuters in a telephone interview while he was traveling in New York. Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event.

…

“This is not true and she knows it. I invited him with her consensus,” said Sorondo, who is senior to Archer.

Assuming the latter is the case, why would the Vatican extend an invitation to Bernie but not to Hillary Clinton?

Vatican can't afford Hillary Clinton's speaking fees, so Sanders it is… https://t.co/9PyFRyjIE8

— Constantin Gurdgiev (@GTCost) April 8, 2016

Ha! That could totallyexplain it.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2016/04/08/so-is-this-why-the-vatican-would-invite-bernie-instead-of-hillary/