Posted on 01/16/2018 8:08:44 PM PST by ebb tide
Concern and controversy were stirred up when leading abortion activist Liliane Ploumen displayed on Dutch television a pontifical honor bestowed on her during a visit to the Vatican in 2017.
Ploumen boasted that she had received a high distinction from the Vatican, from the Pope, in a video broadcast. Reception into the Order of St. Gregory is known to be given for meritorious service to the Church, so Ploumen has legitimate boasting rights.
In 2017, Ploumen launched SheDecides, which, according to the movements website, is a global movement meant to support the fundamental rights of girls and women to decide freely and for themselves about their sexual lives, including whether, when, with whom and how many children they have. This includes having access to modern contraception, to sexual and relationship literacy and safe abortion.
SheDecides is unapologetic about our focus on the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive rights and health, the site continues, including safe abortion and comprehensive sexuality education.
According to a joint report filed by OnePeterFive and The Lepanto Institute, which broke the story, The SheDecides initiative came in response to the funding gap for family planning facilities around the world created after U.S. President Donald Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which blocks American federal funding for NGOs providing abortion services. Within six months, SheDecides which has the support of 60 countries had received pledges totaling $300 million (USD).
All this occurred within the months immediately preceding Ploumens reception of the Vatican Award in June 2017, but somehow, presumably, escaped Vatican vetting.
Catholics around the world, stunned by the news, reached out to the Vatican for an explanation for awarding a politician who strongly supports abortion and homosexuality such an honor.
Former editor-in-chief of Katholiek Nieuwsblad, Henk Rijkers, said in a tweet that the decoration by the Pope of former abortion minister Lilian Ploumen is a scandal, and that the Dutch mainstream medias disinterest in the topic shows how the killing of unborn babies is banalized here as a standard governmental policy & how the media collaborate in that.
Also on Monday, Hollands Cardinal Wim Eijk, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, distanced himself from the controversy, saying he had no part in the Vaticans action.
Steve Skojec of OnePeterFive said he reached out to Greg Burke, director of the Holy See Press Office, several days ago for clarification but received no response.
Instead, perhaps galled by the OnePeterFive and The Lepanto Institute report last week, the Vatican felt pressured to make an announcement to calm the choppy waters Ploumens award had stirred up and finally issued a statement.
Vatican officials are dismissing this as a matter of standard protocol, saying Ploumen received the ancient papal honor as diplomatic practice for a visiting official head of state delegation to the Vatican, according to a report by the National Catholic Registers Ed Pentin.
In a statement released to select Catholic media on Monday night, Paloma García Ovejero, deputy spokesperson of the Holy See Press Office, said:
The honor of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great received by Mrs. Lilianne Ploumen, former Minister of Development, in June 2017 during the visit of the Dutch Royals to the Holy Father, responds to the diplomatic practice of the exchange of honors between delegations on the occasion of official visits by Heads of State or Government in the Vatican.
Therefore, it is not in the slightest a placet (an expression of assent) to the politics in favor of abortion and of birth control that Mrs Ploumen promotes.
OnePeterFives Steve Skojec points out that the Vaticans press release about the matter raises more questions and suspicions than it answers. He asks:
Why was no vetting process applied to the distribution of these awards?
Why was a 186-year-old papal decoration created to bestow a supreme honor on those who have served the Church well being given out like a commemorative Vatican snow globe or a pope pencil in a VIP visitor goody bag?
Why was there no statement condemning or distancing the Vatican from Ploumens public comments in which she says she was awarded a prize by a Vatican that probably knew what she was about in confirmation of her work?
Why was there no expression of remorse that an award was given to one of the most effective single promoters of abortion in the world today?
Why was the award not recalled?
If the reward could not be recalled without creating a diplomatic crisis, why was there nothing in the statement encouraging Ploumen to voluntarily return it, or at the very least stop using it to mislead people into thinking the pope was rubber stamping her agenda?
Ploumens activism extends beyond abortion to outrageous promotion of gay rights.
In 2010, she urged homosexuals to disrupt Mass in a Dutch cathedral after an openly homosexual man was denied Holy Communion the NCR report by Pentin continues. Last September, Ploumen was a prominent speaker at the LGBTs Core Group at the United Nations. The Vatican statement made no explicit mention of her political activism in that area.
Its difficult to be dismissive of Ploumens award as a simple oversight, last weeks OnePeterFive / The Lepanto Institute report pointed out, which lends some Vatican watchers to wonder if perhaps (Ploumens) bold claims about the award being confirmation of her work might have some truth to them.
Why was no vetting process applied to the distribution of these awards?
Why was a 186-year-old papal decoration created to bestow a supreme honor on those who have served the Church well being given out like a commemorative Vatican snow globe or a pope pencil in a VIP visitor goody bag?
Why was there no statement condemning or distancing the Vatican from Ploumens public comments in which she says she was awarded a prize by a Vatican that probably knew what she was about in confirmation of her work?
Why was there no expression of remorse that an award was given to one of the most effective single promoters of abortion in the world today?
Why was the award not recalled?
If the reward could not be recalled without creating a diplomatic crisis, why was there nothing in the statement encouraging Ploumen to voluntarily return it, or at the very least stop using it to mislead people into thinking the pope was rubber stamping her agenda?
And Henry VIII is still the Defender of the Faith. At least this is not the worst mess up the Church has suffered in this area.
I can sum up the entire affair in a simple statement.
This Pope is a Dope!
Francis passes out reception into the Order of St. Gregory willy-nilly as does he wish to give Holy Communion to unreptent Catholics in a state of mortal sin, and even to non-Catholics.
Not true.
After Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church, Pope Paul III excommunicated Henry and rescinded the grant of the title Defender of the Faith in 1538 but the English Parliament declared that the title remained valid.
https://catholicunderthehood.com/2010/10/17/today-in-catholic-history-henry-viii-is-declared-the-defender-of-the-faith/
This theme and behavior are recurring, inexcusable, and disgusting.
Is there any mechanism to fire the Pope?
They may be going to hell in a bucket, baby, but at least they’re enjoying the ride
Excrementus Taurinus.
Like so many other things, we have to let God do it.
Very good. I didn’t know that it was rescinded—but even so, it was granted in 1521 by Leo X—BUT Clement VII is the one who ought to have yanked the title. Paul III yanked it in 1538—More and Fisher were executed in 1535. I am now more informed, and would still hold that him holding this title from his “marriage” with Anne Boleyn going public in 1533 through 1538 is a bigger deal than this present title thing. That Clement didn’t act gave the English Parliament a stronger position for holding that the title remained valid.
Tomorrow morning I am going to have a talk with my pastor about this. Please pray for me.
Dearest Mrs. Don-o, I will pray for you in all ways. And for your pastor. In my admitted total ignorance about how Catholic tradition and rules work, I would think that a person who may have been elected Pope and sits on the Pope’s seat, but does not believe in the actual teachings of Catholicism, nor abide by them, would not be an actual Pope.
BTW some time about 2 years ago I bought some books I am sure you would like and probably have and need to read them! By St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. I have Little Flower already.
((((HUGS))))
My comment was muddy. Books I’m sure you have and I need to read them. I would appreciate hearing what the consideration is after you speak with your pastor.
I had hopes for him in the beginning. Now I’m scared to read any news about him.
Thank you Mrs. Don-o. We will be praying. God be with you.
Sometimes people need to act, under His direction of course.
I don’t recall reading anything about an award for President Trump or any other head of state for that matter.
I depend on the prayers of humble hearts!
I am almost ludicrously unfitted for tete-a-teting with my pastor about this, and although I have rehearsed various lines of dialogue, I’m not really sure what I’m going to say. I fear meandering around and then bursting into tears. Whatever happens, may God’s will be done.
If He could talk through Balaam’s ass (Numbers 22:21-30), He could convey some sensible words -— despite my garble -— through me.
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