Pope Invites Bernie Sanders to Speak at Vatican???

Guy Noir told me he thought this was satire at first, but then decided it was not. Living under the aegis of the 'God of surprises,' I suppose almost anything can happen these days: Larry Mcshane, "Bernie Sanders insists he didn't lobby for Vatican invite" (New York Daily News, April 8, 2016):

The Bernie Sanders camp swears on a stack of Bibles: The senator’s invite to the Vatican next week came from a higher power — not political pressure.

A beaming Sanders, declaring he was a “big, big fan” of kindred spirit Pope Francis, announced Friday morning that he was asked to attend the April 15 papal conference on social, economic and environmental issues.

And then, there's this: "Papal official denies report Sanders invited himself to Vatican" (Reuters, April8, 2016):

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.

Go figure.