Reuters Plops Old Priest Photo Into Obama-Cozy-with-Christians Story

In an op-ed posted on our site CNSNews.com on "Obama's Clever Use of Catholics," Judie Brown wrote about how Barack Obama’s being pictured happily engaging with Catholic clergy to undergird his proclamation at an Albuquerque event that he was a "Christian by choice." But sometimes the media's willingness to promote Obama themes means the pictures are utterly unrelated to the news event:

Reuters, one of the news services covering that particular meeting in Albuquerque, used a stock photo to accompany its report.

The photo, which depicted the president with Catholic priest, Father Vien Nguyen, who leads the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans, was taken during a reception at the White House earlier this year in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Father Nguyen was also honored for his help within the community after Hurricane Katrina.

Father Nguyen is not from New Mexico, but that apparently mattered little to the press at Reuters who found it convenient to use the opportunity to showcase a Catholic priest with Obama. Perhaps it’s no accident that Father Nguyen was honored by Obama since he is described by Politics Daily as a man who “has shown extreme grit and skill as a community organizer.”

In yet another attempt to highlight himself with Catholics, Obama traveled to Iowa this past week and met with a Catholic family living in Des Moines so that he could talk about “issues” facing middle-class Americans. During his visit he was joined by Father Michael Amadeo of Holy Trinity Catholic Church and the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Des Moines, Most Reverend Richard E. Pates.

The photo of Obama with Bishop Pates presents the sort of chummy, friend-to-friend image that Obama wants to portray to the world, though his actual reasons for using Catholics as public props are perhaps anything but honorable.

After all, this is a president who deceived the Catholic bishops on the subject of nationalized health care, employed every tactic in the book to garner support from the Catholic Health Association for his draconian proposal and, to this very day, has never suggested that his anti-life policies and personal convictions on abortion are an affront to every Christian—including Catholics.

At the event in Des Moines, Father Amadeo asked Obama about unemployment -- a more polite inquiry than asking about abortion.