Posted on 02/20/2009 10:59:11 AM PST by topher
Pope Benedict strongly rebukes Pelosi over abortion
Vatican City, Feb 18, 2009 / 10:18 am (CNA).- House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s photo-op with Pope Benedict XVI turned sour when the Pontiff used the 15-minute meeting to reaffirm the teachings of the Catholic Church on the right to life and the duty to protect the unborn.
No photo of Nancy Pelosi and the Pope will be forthcoming, since the meeting was closed to reporters and photographers. The two met in a small room in the Vatican just after the Pope's weekly public audience.
Immediately after the meeting, the Holy See’s press office released a statement saying, "following the general audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage."
"His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."
A significant number of Catholic and pro-life organizations expressed concern over how Pelosi would use the meeting with Pope Benedict to further her position that it is possible to be Catholic and pro-abortion.
Last August, Pelosi was rebuked by several U.S. bishops for attempting to theologically justify her position during an interview with "Meet the Press."
On Tuesday, Jon O’Brien, president of "Catholics for Choice," a small, well-funded organization that provides theological arguments to pro-abortion Catholic politicians, told The Hill that today’s visit between the Speaker and Pope Benedict would be an opportunity to highlight that one can be pro-choice and Catholic, and that there are much bigger issues out there to discuss, such as the fate of the poor in the global economic downturn.
"That would be a real conversation about choice, instead of this micro-obsession with abortion," O’Brien said.
Nevertheless, according to the Holy See's statement, the Pope spent the whole 15 minute conversation talking with Pelosi about the right to life and the need to defend the unborn.
A spokesman for Pelosi, who is now headed to Southern Italy as part of her Italian tour, said she would issue a statement later in the day regarding her meeting with the Pope.
[Note: the article has the following photo with it.]
You better believe its just lip service. There’s too much money in it to alienate that many Catholics.
Poor sad woman currently riding high in her worldly power and yet having the chutzpah to want a photo op with the Holy Father.
Or.....as it's stated in Matthew 16:26: "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?"
Leni
“You better believe its just lip service. There’s too much money in it to alienate that many Catholics.”
Are you Catholic? You write as if you know something and yet you don’t.
It is not lip service and has nothing to do with money.
All I’m saying is that nowadays real Catholics make up an insignificant proportion of the American population. Pelosi’s political viability among Catholics won’t be affected by the Pope’s admonishing her—or even by her being refused Communion. The majority of those who claim to be Catholics know that they could as easily be refused Communion as she, if they were public figures whose views were widely known.
Catholics comprise about 1/4 of the official US population. The number increases to over 1/3 if illegals are counted. If Catholics voted their faith it would have a revolutionary effect on the American political landscape. Overnight CA, NM, MO, IL, MN, WI, MI, OH, LA, IN, PA, NY, DE, MA, NY, NJ, and MD would become solidly red. This Pope has the potential to accomplish that.
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