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Pope Benedict strongly rebukes Pelosi over abortion(new details)
CNA ^ | February 18, 2009

Posted on 02/18/2009 12:08:41 PM PST by NYer

Pope Benedict / Speaker Nancy Pelosi

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abortion; democrats; moralabsolutes; pelosi; vatican
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1 posted on 02/18/2009 12:08:41 PM PST by NYer
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To: Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


2 posted on 02/18/2009 12:09:17 PM PST by NYer ("Run from places of sin as from a plague." - St. John Climacus)
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To: NYer

So no photo-op for Pelosi!


3 posted on 02/18/2009 12:09:39 PM PST by acoulterfan
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To: NYer

Which details are new?


4 posted on 02/18/2009 12:09:45 PM PST by nickcarraway (Are the Good Times Really Over?)
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To: NYer
The Pope against the anti-Christ, Nancy Pelosi?

I'll put my money on the Pope.

5 posted on 02/18/2009 12:10:41 PM PST by South40
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To: nickcarraway

The Pope slapped her? :)


6 posted on 02/18/2009 12:10:53 PM PST by SoKatt ("Change" is not a strategy!)
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To: NYer
there are much bigger issues out there to discuss, such as the fate of the poor in the global economic downturn

No, the "plight of the poor" is NOT a bigger issue than the wholesale murder of the unborn.

7 posted on 02/18/2009 12:11:05 PM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
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To: acoulterfan
So just who does he think he is!
8 posted on 02/18/2009 12:11:38 PM PST by dblshot
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To: NYer
a real conversation about choice

Yes, let's have a real conversation about choice,
like - what vehicle I want to drive, what charity I want to contribute my hard earned income to (or not), whether I want to subsidize fatherless bastards, what I can eat, where I can send my kids to school...

yes, let's have a real conversation about "choice"

9 posted on 02/18/2009 12:13:05 PM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
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To: NYer

Glad the meeting was private.He must of zapped her good and with a smile.


10 posted on 02/18/2009 12:14:52 PM PST by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
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To: NYer

Unless he publicly and immediately excommunicates the whole bloody bunch, then I’m not impressed.


11 posted on 02/18/2009 12:16:46 PM PST by laweeks
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To: NYer

Would like to have been a fly on the wall to see and hear that conversation. How would the introductions have gone....”Good, I want to introduce you to Evil. Evil, this is Good.”


12 posted on 02/18/2009 12:17:02 PM PST by OB1kNOb (Although politicians are economically irrelevant, that doesn't keep them from yanking the $ levers.)
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To: acoulterfan

Probably had a look of shock and anger frozen on that plastic face of hers. They were afraid the cameras were going to shatter after a bunch of mirrors she was around cracked and burned.


13 posted on 02/18/2009 12:18:38 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: laweeks

They would still say they were catholic and still keep going to church. They’d probably still get communion.


14 posted on 02/18/2009 12:19:26 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: NYer

Pelosi went to see the Pope. Why? What was her purpose for the meeting?


15 posted on 02/18/2009 12:22:59 PM PST by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: NYer

Applause Benedict.

Nancy is trying to figure out how to spin it.


16 posted on 02/18/2009 12:23:27 PM PST by TASMANIANRED (TAZ:Untamed, Unpredictable, Uninhibited.)
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To: NYer
Even Micheal Corleone confessed his sins when he went to the Vatican (Godfather III). She was probably waiting for the Pope to apologize to her.

If she went on this trip at our expense for a supposed Govt purpose then she owes us a better report than: I showed him family pictures and my husband and I were thrilled and I thanked him for his support on Global Warming.

If the Pope had splashed holy water on her, she'd have melted.

Notice how all she talks about is what she told him?

I am convinced that just about every politician in D.C.that professes a faith or belongs to a church does so for the political and social networking benefits it provides.

17 posted on 02/18/2009 12:25:07 PM PST by Never on my watch (Save energy - put the enemy's lights out.)
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To: NYer

No significant additions to the news, seems to me.


18 posted on 02/18/2009 12:25:17 PM PST by Quix (POL BOSSES say fm1900 2 presnt: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: TASMANIANRED

She didn’t mind the rebuking so much, but when he doused her with holy water..well that just burned her hide. *snicker*


19 posted on 02/18/2009 12:27:37 PM PST by catbertz
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To: TigersEye
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.

Good for the Pope!

20 posted on 02/18/2009 12:30:44 PM PST by pandoraou812 (Don't play leapfrog with a unicorn! ...........^............)
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