Conservative Catholics might not like it but Speaker Nancy Pelosi is meeting with the Pope in Rome Wednesday. Read below from the AP:
Visiting US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI during her weeklong visit to Italy, a Vatican official said Monday:
The meeting will take place on Wednesday, the official told AFP, saying it would likely occur after the pope's weekly general audience.
Pelosi, who describes herself as an "ardent" Catholic while advocating reproductive rights, will be the highest-ranking US official to see the pope since President Barack Obama took office last month.
The new Democratic administration is at odds with the Vatican over abortion, stemcell research and other bioethical issues.
Senior Vatican officials slammed Obama's rapid overturning of a ban on US government funding for family planning groups around the world that carry out or facilitate abortions.
Obama signed the executive order cancelling the eight-year-old restrictions imposed by his predecessor George W. Bush on the third full day of his presidency.
The Roman Catholic Church has also criticized the approval of US authorities for the first human trials using embryonic stem cells of a therapy to help paralyzed patients regain movement.
Conservative Catholic leaders like Deal Hudson are highlighted Pelosi’s liberal views but he also thinks the meeting should happen. Read why below:
Pelosi's 100 percent voting record on abortion, according to NARAL, is commonplace among Catholic Democrats in the House, but Pelosi is, perhaps, the most vocal among them. For example, millions of dollars for contraceptives were cut from the first version of the stimulus package; 0nly Pelosi, rather incoherently, defended the funding.
In August, she made such outrageous comments about the Church on Meet the Press that she single-handedly endangered President Barack Obama's outreach to Catholic voters. When, to support her pro-abortion stance on when life begins, she asserted, "Over the centuries, the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition," Pelosi elicited a rebuke not only from her ordinary, Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco, but also from dozens of other bishops.
Thus, the news that Pelosi will meet with Benedict spread like wildfire through the Catholic blogs last Thursday. Many Catholics, disgusted with her rabid pro-abortion politics, were outraged that the pope would agree to meet with her at all. They forget that the Holy Father is a head of state and regularly meets with political leaders from every nation, regardless of their positions on issues important to the Church.
It's a good idea for Benedict to meet with Pelosi, because one can never underestimate the impact of being in his presence. It's also worth remembering that, if the protocol of past meetings remains the same, the Holy Father will make formal remarks in front of the media before any private meeting. Benedict will very likely make comments criticizing the Obama administration for ending the Mexico City Policy and warning the new Congress against passing the Freedom of Choice Act.
What do you think? Should the Pope meet with Speaker Pelosi? After all, he is a head of state and she is a big deal politically. Nancy Pelosi may not line up with the Catholic Church on abortion but those close to her say she is a very committed Catholic. Some will scoff at that but if you are a moderate or progressive Catholic you get Pelosi and her political and spiritual thinking.
Comments?