Machinists Leaders Meet With Pope?

In a bid to reinvigorate the long-standing ties between labor and the faith community, a delegation of IAM leaders from the United States and Canada met recently with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in Rome.

In addition to the audience granted to the IAM delegation, the Pope met privately with IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger, who shared a concern of many that Catholic Bishops are not as supportive of the labor movement as they once were.

The Catholic Church has a long history of inspiring and supporting labor, civil and human rights campaigns, from the pro-labor encyclical “Rerum Novarum” issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, to the activities of Dorothy Day, John Cort, George G. Higgins and hundreds of priests and bishops who marched with U.S. civil rights activists.  Read the full iMail IAM article here.