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Pope-Pelosi Wednesday Meeting On
Whispers in the Loggia ^ | February 16, 2009 | Rocco Palmo

Posted on 02/16/2009 4:59:12 PM PST by TaxachusettsMan

In news from another part of the Roman-American fray, it's been confirmed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet Pope Benedict following Wednesday's General Audience as part of her Italian tour: On Monday at noon in Rome, the Vatican’s Press Office confirmed to [Catholic News Agency] that Pope Benedict will be receiving U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in an audience at noon on Wednesday.

Pelosi, a self-proclaimed "ardent Catholic" who has sparked significant criticism from fellow Catholics in the U.S. for her pro-abortion views, arrived in Italy on Sunday for an eight-day official visit.... Although numerous reports have been published either confirming or denying that Pope Benedict would receive Pelosi in an audience, the Holy See’s Press Office confirmed to CNA on Monday at noon Rome time, that the Holy Father will receive the U.S. representative on Wednesday at midday.

The press office made clear that the Pope will meet with Pelosi in his capacity as a head of state since the Speaker of the House is the third in line to lead the U.S., should the president and vice president be unable to do so....

Over this past weekend pro-life activists and bloggers launched verbal salvos against the Vatican because they believe that the Holy See plans to present Nancy Pelosi with an award.

This is definitely not true, the Vatican’s press office told CNA. The idea that Pelosi would be awarded by the Vatican most likely is the result of activists confusing the visit to the Vatican with the Speaker of the House being awarded by a group of Italian legislators for being the first Italian American to reach such a high rank in the U.S. government.

Following August comments on Meet the Press attempting to reconcile her faith with her pro-choice stance, the California Democrat was criticized by a number of Stateside bishops and invited to a "conversation" with her ordinary, Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco.


TOPICS: Catholic; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: 111th; catholic; catholicpoliticians; pelosi; pope; prolife
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To: Frantzie
"I really like this Pope but no more. Almost as bad as phony pastor Rick Warren shilling for O."

Your statements remind me of the current attacks by left on the Pope and the Church and the Immorality Trials held by the Nazi's in the 1930s which were intended to undermine the moral authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church. I guess some people can never really get past their own anti-Catholic prejudices.

21 posted on 02/16/2009 5:26:11 PM PST by Natural Law
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To: silverleaf

I know I have posted this several times, but I urge all of the faithful to send some correspondence to the Holy Father. It is my belief that as the pope of the church universal, he cannot and does not know everything that goes on everywhere. I also think that there are many who are not telling him all he needs to know in the curia. There are about 60 million catholics here, out of over 1 BILLION catholics worldwide. They get much of their money from the US, so if something is going to cause a stir here, the Pope may not be in the loop as much as we would hope. Remember, about 1/3 of the clergy is corrupt, or so it is assumed. Take the time to write his holiness, let him know. Anyone who want to use my letter to save time has my permission and thanks for taking the time to send our holy father a message. If writing your own, please remember who he is, and like when we write our politicians, bashing, hating, cursing won’t make us look good. Thank you!

Holy Father,

I am writing from the United States about a very serious issue. My heart is breaking for the unborn. We now have a president that believes a baby is punishment, yet he feels it is above his paygrade to know when life begins. Catholic teaching has not been what it should be in the last 50 years. We have a huge amount of nominal Catholics in the US, and they will only vote based on their feelings about issues, not fundamental truths.

In part, this is because of our many “catholic” politicians who are able to straddle both sides of the fence. They claim to be practicing Catholics, but they hold beliefs and condone and support practices that are completely incompatible with Catholic teaching. They then can go to Mass, receive communion, and claim the Church has not truly defined the issue on abortion, gay marriage, etc. This is patently false. They are lying and getting away with it. They claim because there has been no ex cathedra statement on abortion, there is still discussion about it.

We are unfortunately a very letter of the law people. While this is good when just laws are made and followed, it is also a loophole that politicians play with to pander for votes. Abortion is one of those rules. Coupled with a poorly catechised populace in the US, our legislators are able to straddle the abortion issue to garner votes, and yet still publically practice their faith. They have been able to do this without interference from the Holy See for far too long now.

While many bishops have begun to speak up against this issue, nothing would give them the support in the fight they need like a defined Papal pronouncement from the Chair of Peter. Seeing as this issue is definative already, it would clarify to millions of Catholics that it is binding on the Church Universal that abortion IS murder, it IS an excommunicable offense, and would publically call out our politicians like the Kennedy family, Joe Biden, our new Vice President, and Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, who has publically challenged the Church on its stand on abortion against her own bishop, who pander to nominal Catholics for votes by confusing them on this issue.

I beg you Holy Father, please crush the head of this snake. The devil has a great foothold in this area in the United States. The bishops are impotent against it because the majority stood silent for so long. Now they are doing much more, but their voices go unheeded until Our Holy Father declares the matter settled and binding on the whole Church.

Nancy Pelosi is travelling to Rome this week. It is said she is having a meeting with you. I pray that this is to inform her that this pronouncement is coming from you, so she had better prepare herself based on this. Money, power, tax exemptions for Churches should not be allowed to influence a decision on faith and morals, and we will stand with you and fight to the death under the banner of Christ. Please Holy Father, I implore you, declare this holocaust against the unborn, embryonic stem cell research, birth control, and human cloning as a matter binding on the whole Church. Christ will hold us accountable for this blood, not political wrangling. 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust is 6 million too many. The outcry for the recent events , while legitimate, just points to the fact that so many people are so woefully uneducated about a holocaust that has taken 9 times the lives of innocents over the last 30 years!

May God and the blood of the innocents be your only guide on your decision.


22 posted on 02/16/2009 5:26:45 PM PST by wombtotomb (since its "above his paygrade", why can't we err on the side of caution about when life begins?)
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To: Cap'n Crunch
I hope he drives a fuggin' wooden stake through her heart.


23 posted on 02/16/2009 5:28:15 PM PST by Viking2002 (The Occupation has begun. God help America.)
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To: TaxachusettsMan
Helpful phone numbers for voicing one's opinion:

Email too: benedictxvi@vatican.va

24 posted on 02/16/2009 5:29:06 PM PST by redgirlinabluestate
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To: Viking2002

Works for me.


25 posted on 02/16/2009 5:30:41 PM PST by Cap'n Crunch (Rush Limbaugh, the Winston Churchill of our time)
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To: Natural Law

Hardly. If it was not for the Church and the Pope in 1683 AD who made a pact with King Jan Sobeiski of Polad - Europe and probably America would be Islamic.

The current Pope understands the threat of Islam. The Church is one of the last bulwarks against Europe becoming a caliphate. I think the American Catholic Church stiunks in it’s support of ACORN, illegal aliens and failure to detect homosexual priests who infaltrated the church. Too many liberal bishops undermining the good people.

Pelosi is still a horrible woman. I have oither issues with 78% of American (liberal) Jews whoo voted for Hussein and sold Israel out. I do not like phony pastor Rick Warren or the prosperity evanghelicals or the real liberal Prostestants denominations that are headed toward oblivion.

Walk the walk. Meeting with baby killer Pelosi is not walking the walk. The woman is pure evil. She, O and Hairy Reid are on the Saudis payroll.


26 posted on 02/16/2009 5:44:00 PM PST by Frantzie (Boycott GE - they own NBC, MSNBC, CNBC & Universal. Boycott Disney - they own ABC)
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To: Natural Law

Well, I’m a Catholic too, and if the Pope soft-pedals his comments about Pelosi after meeting with her, I too will be greatly disappointed. Virtually NO ONE on the conservative side anywhere has the guts to stand up anymore. Virtually no one.


27 posted on 02/16/2009 5:44:03 PM PST by raptor29
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To: raptor29
Virtually NO ONE on the conservative side anywhere has the guts to stand up anymore. Virtually no one.

One big reason...follow the money.

28 posted on 02/16/2009 5:56:28 PM PST by buccaneer81 (Bob Taft has soiled the family name for the next century.)
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To: All
The Anchoress has a good entry on her blog about this upcoming meeting between Pope Benedict and Nancy Pelosi; the Anchoress writes that this is a chance when the Holy Spirit might begin its work on Speaker Pelosi, and that Pope Benedict should see her because his role is that of a shepherd to all of his flock, even to the lost sheep. We should not give up hope that the Holy Spirit will use this meeting to begin to act even upon the heart of someone like Nancy Pelosi. When I read that blog entry, it certainly gave me pause. And in a way, you really can't imagine the sheep in the flock in the parable of the lost sheep being all that thrilled about seeing the shepherd go off and leave them in search of the one lost sheep. And yet he does.
29 posted on 02/16/2009 5:56:36 PM PST by Coyote Choir
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To: Frantzie; silverleaf

You two are mental eunuchs.


30 posted on 02/16/2009 6:13:06 PM PST by A.A. Cunningham
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To: TaxachusettsMan
Ex-communicate the wicked witch


31 posted on 02/16/2009 6:14:43 PM PST by dancusa (Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.)
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To: A.A. Cunningham

Thank you. I thought there were rules against insulting people here.


32 posted on 02/16/2009 6:18:12 PM PST by Frantzie (Boycott GE - they own NBC, MSNBC, CNBC & Universal. Boycott Disney - they own ABC)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

The pope will do nothing. Didn’t he just void the excommunication of the Bishop who was a holocaust denier?

He could have made a huge statement there but he didn’t.


33 posted on 02/16/2009 6:43:47 PM PST by JSteff (It was ALL about SCOTUS. Most forget about that and HAVE DOOMED us for a generation or more.)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

A lightning strike or falling construction debris would be ... symbolic.

Did I say that?


34 posted on 02/16/2009 6:56:53 PM PST by Tax-chick ("Global leadership means never having to say you're sorry." ~IBD)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

I’m Catholic. There’s only one right thing for the Holy Father to do here. I think he will. I’d be amazed and horrified if he didn’t.


35 posted on 02/16/2009 7:07:12 PM PST by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast (American Revolution II -- overdue.)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

You wrote:

“ANY photo-op that is NOT accompanied by news that the Pope has told her in no uncertain terms how scandalous her public support for the crime of abortion is will be deeply disappointing to faithful, pro-life Catholics,...”

Prepare to be disappointed. I think the pope will tell her behind closed doors, and we might hear little or nothing about it. Personally, part of me thinks he should just slap her right there in front of the cameras. Some how I don’t think that’s what will happen, however.

Oh, Benedict is a saintly pope, but sometimes I think I would take a less saintly Julius II just to get the idea across!

Renaissance guilty pleasure: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/lansing/classes/hist4b/materials/Week7.pdf


36 posted on 02/16/2009 7:26:23 PM PST by vladimir998 (Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. St. Jerome)
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To: JSteff

You wrote:

“The pope will do nothing. Didn’t he just void the excommunication of the Bishop who was a holocaust denier?”

Get serious! He lifted the excommunication to HELP the bishop’s thousands of followers not to reward the bishop.

“He could have made a huge statement there but he didn’t.”

Yeah, actually he did: 1) that he was willing to do the right thing even though ignorant people who know nothing about the case will pile on him anyway, 2) he used the ensuing controversy to condemn anti-semitism and holocaust denial.


37 posted on 02/16/2009 7:30:21 PM PST by vladimir998 (Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. St. Jerome)
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To: vladimir998

Well said. I am pretty sure that the Papal suite of armor is still in the vatican, somewhere.

I expect her egoness to make a press release, good meeting, yada, yada...

And the Pope will wait a few days, and make some mention of the evils of abortion.

And we will never know what he said to her, really.

Although the idea of her melting when the Pope sprinkles her with Holy Water is sort of funny...


38 posted on 02/16/2009 7:50:26 PM PST by patton (SPQA - the last, the least and the lost)
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To: MIchaelTArchangel

Isn’t she already excommunicated? That’s the drift I get on FR...

example:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2088484/posts


39 posted on 02/16/2009 7:58:53 PM PST by Kevmo ( It's all over for this Country as a Constitutional Republic. ~Leo Donofrio, 12/14/08)
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To: All

I well remember John Paul II lecturing (rudely, i thought) President Bush during his visit to Rome, during which visit the President awarded the Pope our Medal of Freedom, regarding the Iraq War. About that matter, a war and whether it meets the criteria for a just war, there can be legitimate disagreement. And the Pope had met with the Chaldean Catholic henchman of Saddam, Tariq Azziz, in the company of disgraced Melkite Archbishop and PLO gun-runner Hilarion Cappucci.

About abortion, however, there is NO room for compromise.

I can’t bring myself to believe that, just because the majority of US bishops are liberal Democrats, the Pope would refuse or even hesitate to be as directly confrontational with Pelosi about abortion as JP II was with Bush about the war.


40 posted on 02/16/2009 8:10:56 PM PST by TaxachusettsMan
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