Eric Marapodi News Today

Meeting where its almost like a get to know you. no, were just going to have a -- well hang out, well have some prayer. >> keep in mind, pope francis comes into this position through the pastoral track in the catholic church. he was head of the jesuits in argentina and archbishop of buenas aries. as john points out, there could be a bit of a learning curve here hes still working with as he gets up to speed on geopolitics, but a lot of expectations. >> yeah. well be watching. eric and john allen....

What are you thinking the expectations are out of this meeting? >> well, i think there are many who are quite despondent about the current state of hope for middle east peace after the failure of secretary of state john kerrys effort to restart the process. i interviewed a cardinal this morning, cardinal theodore mccarrick, former archbishop of washington and a troubleshooter. i asked him does francis risk his political credibility by creating a meeting in which people are expecting something to...

One. he is widely seen as a reformer on the sex abuse issue and hes also a member of the popes new commission for the protection of minors. so i think this is a clear indication that francis is trying to get the message out that he gets it about the need to confront the churchs abuse scandals, brianna. >> eric, the pope also said something that kind of stuck out to me. he talked about the resignation of his predecessor pope benedict which was strange to us. we hadnt seen this in centuries. he sa...

no agreement. nor is there an agreement on a house republican push for a much smaller plan made up of spending cuts alone. if all else fails, we may end up with an idea floated by the top senate republican, mitch mcconnell. we laid it out for you. three separate votes between now and the next elections to raise the nations debt by $2.5 trillion, and there would be $1 trillion in spending cuts and a special congressional panel to shore up entitlements, and the up side supposedly for rep...