Obama, pope discuss abortion, church's teachings

(CNN) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI discussed current affairs, the Catholic Church's teachings and abortion as they met for the first time Friday, according to the White House and the Vatican.

The president also handed the pontiff a letter from Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who was diagnosed with brain cancer last year, and asked that the pontiff pray for the senator, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough said.

Kennedy, 77, a Democrat, received the diagnosis after suffering a seizure in May 2008.

Obama and the pope spent about a half hour talking, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Obama told the pope he understands the church's teachings and said, as he has before, that he would like to reduce the number of abortions in the United States, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told CNN.

McDonough said the pope gave Obama - who supports abortion rights and federally funded embryonic stem-cell research - a Vatican paper titled "An Instruction on Certain Bioethical Questions."

He said his sense was that the two "discussed abortion and stem cells. They discussed a range of those issues."