Senior papal official: Untrue that Sanders invited himself to Vatican

VATICAN CITY, April 8 (Reuters) - 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 reports that Sanders 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 the head of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event.