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Obama’s Tasteless Welcome of Pope Francis
The Daily Signal ^ | September 18, 2015 | Katrina Trinko

Posted on 09/18/2015 10:42:52 PM PDT by Vision Thing

Maybe we shouldn’t expect anything much from a president who gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod filled with his own speeches, and who gave former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a set of American movies on DVDs that didn’t work in the U.K.

But the way this White House is choosing to “welcome” Pope Francis is appalling.

When Francis arrives at the White House on Wednesday for a welcome reception, his greeters will include “Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican bishop who’s now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a think-tank with ties to the Democratic Party, and Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the Catholic social justice lobby Network, and a leader of the ‘Nuns on the Bus’ advocacy tours,” reports the Associated Press.

According to her biography on Network’s site, Campbell played a crucial role in promoting Obamacare’s passage:

During the 2010 congressional debate about health care reform, she wrote the famous ‘nuns’ letter’ supporting the reform bill and got 59 leaders of Catholic Sisters … to sign on. This action was cited by many as critically important in passing the Affordable Care Act. She was thanked by President Obama and invited to the ceremony celebrating its being signed into law.

You know who didn’t advocate for Obamacare’s passage? The Catholic bishops in the United States who opposed the bill.

After Obamacare passed, Cardinal Francis George, who passed away this year, wrote, “We as Catholic bishops have opposed its passage because there is compelling evidence that it would expand the role of the federal government in funding and facilitating abortion and plans that cover abortion.”

Nor is Robinson better. He is the author of “God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Marriage,” a book that, First Things wrote, “seeks to convince the reader of the need for legal gay marriage in all fifty states and at the federal level.”

While Pope Francis’ “Who am I to judge?” comment drew plenty of media attention, he is no supporter of gay marriage. In January, he said, “The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life.” A Vatican official confirmed to Catholic site Crux that Francis was alluding to same-sex marriage.

LGBT advocacy group GLAAD announced Wednesday that “the White House has extended an invitation for GLAAD and LGBT Catholic leaders to attend the White House reception for Pope Francis,” and that two representatives from their organization would be attending.

Also attending will be Mateo Williamson, “a former co-head of the transgender caucus of Dignity USA, a group for LGBT Catholics … [who] said the Vatican’s disapproval of his presence at the ceremony ‘speaks to the necessity for continued dialogue’ between transgender Catholics and the church hierarchy,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

All of this makes it not exactly shocking that the “Vatican has taken offense” at Obama’s list of invitees and that “the Holy See worries that any photos of the pope with these guests at the White House welcoming ceremony next Wednesday could be interpreted as an endorsement of their activities,” as the Wall Street Journal additionally reported.

What is going on?

It’s no secret that on a variety of issues, such as marriage and the sanctity of life, including for those in the womb, Obama and Francis don’t see eye to eye.

But Francis is coming as a guest to the United States, and HE deserves to be treated cordially—not thrust into a hostile reception with people who have avidly advocated the very policies he and the Catholic Church are so firmly against.

The White House downplayed the matter Thursday, with press secretary Josh Earnest saying, per Fox News, “I’d warn you against drawing a lot of conclusions of one, two or three people on the guest list because there will be 15,000 other people there.”

But the officials running the White House aren’t fools. It’s implausible they were unaware of the potential such controversial figures could make in the media if they chose to announce their invites to the reception with Francis.

Right now, Francis and his team are getting a crash course in the White House’s hostility toward Catholicism. When he returns to Rome, it may be with a better understanding of what American Catholics fighting to stay true to their beliefs and live in accordance with the laws are facing more and more in an increasingly intolerant United States.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: aca; cap; demoralization; gaymarriage; glaad; lgbt; marriage; nunsletter; nunsonthebus; obama; obamacare; pervs; popefrancis; progressives; simonecampbell
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If Pope Francis was a champion, he should do what Tom Brady did and just shun homobama.
1 posted on 09/18/2015 10:42:52 PM PDT by Vision Thing
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To: Vision Thing

” And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. “


2 posted on 09/18/2015 10:46:13 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: Vision Thing

This Marxist Pope is reaping what he sows.


3 posted on 09/18/2015 10:48:24 PM PDT by fireman15 (Check your facts before making ignorant statements.)
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To: Vision Thing

Word is Biden will be the barker for that freak show.


4 posted on 09/18/2015 10:48:36 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (CA the sanctuary state for stupid.)
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To: LeoWindhorse

That woman Eve was such a sucka. Unfortunately, we all descended from her.


5 posted on 09/18/2015 10:51:32 PM PDT by Vision Thing ("Community Organizer" is a shorter way of saying "Commie Unity Organizer".)
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To: fireman15

Some information on Francis might lead to more enlightened posts

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/world/europe/pope-francis.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0


6 posted on 09/18/2015 10:52:01 PM PDT by Steelfish
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To: Vision Thing

The Pope would best be served by a last minute cancellation, citing a thinly veiled displeasure with the welcome while visiting a community of refugee Christians as the reason for the cancellation.


7 posted on 09/18/2015 10:52:17 PM PDT by Tench_Coxe (For every Allende, there is a Pinochet)
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To: Vision Thing
But the way this White House is choosing to “welcome” Pope Francis is appalling.

Freepers treat the Pope even worse.

8 posted on 09/18/2015 10:52:19 PM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (We have had enough of immorality and the mockery of ethics, goodness, faith and honesty.)
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To: Tench_Coxe

It’d be even better if God intervened somehow.


9 posted on 09/18/2015 11:06:51 PM PDT by Vision Thing ("Community Organizer" is a shorter way of saying "Commie Unity Organizer".)
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To: fireman15

If the Pope wants to be like Jesus, he’d look forward to this WH freakshow visit not with dread, but as an opportunity to save.


10 posted on 09/18/2015 11:16:18 PM PDT by Vision Thing ("Community Organizer" is a shorter way of saying "Commie Unity Organizer".)
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To: Mike Darancette

Unfortunately for Creepy Joe Biden, Pope Francis won’t be bringing any underage girls with him, so Joe will have no opportunity to grip them by their shoulders and sniff their hair.

Someone here at FR has been posting animated gifs of Joe doing that to so many young gals. They need to preface each of these images with the same warnings that AMC Channel posts before each Walking Dead episode: The following scenes may be too disturbing for some viewers.


11 posted on 09/18/2015 11:22:07 PM PDT by Vision Thing ("Community Organizer" is a shorter way of saying "Commie Unity Organizer".)
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To: Vision Thing

Eve was a Liberal progressive


12 posted on 09/18/2015 11:29:39 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: Vision Thing

is the Pope closeted gay ?


13 posted on 09/18/2015 11:31:01 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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While the “Welcome” may be insulting to the Church, not sure Francis objects to the guest list.

Related...

MSM reports Francis is responsible for the revivification of Catholic attendance.

The MSM is all too excited about the Socialist’s influence, but the Church claims no change in doctrine.

Contemplating the irony of a Socialist Pope bringing the flock home only to suffer the protracted consequences of having to hear the Church’s anti-abortion message.


14 posted on 09/18/2015 11:33:56 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Vision Thing

He should excommunicate them on the spot. With a you-can-repent-and-come-back message lovingly given.


15 posted on 09/18/2015 11:39:12 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: LeoWindhorse

Oh yeah, I’ll top that: “Eve” is the root word for “Evil” and the darkness of “Evening”! :)


16 posted on 09/18/2015 11:40:29 PM PDT by Vision Thing ("Community Organizer" is a shorter way of saying "Commie Unity Organizer".)
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To: LeoWindhorse
is the Pope closeted gay ?

More likely he just has a minor case of Trump's penchant to say things spontaneously that get him into trouble, but he sorely lacks Trump's ability to spin them into something better.

17 posted on 09/18/2015 11:44:34 PM PDT by Vision Thing ("Community Organizer" is a shorter way of saying "Commie Unity Organizer".)
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To: Vision Thing

I keep think that Obama has stooped to the lowest he can go to embarrass this country, and then he outdoes himself with an even lower stunt.


18 posted on 09/19/2015 1:39:38 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Ethan Clive Osgoode
Freepers treat the Pope even worse.
And that's more than he deserves.
19 posted on 09/19/2015 2:35:27 AM PDT by lewislynn (Meghan Kelley...#sand--Rosie, the Don was right-- Hillary, lipstick on a pig)
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To: Vision Thing

Was someone saying something about “clowns”?


20 posted on 09/19/2015 2:36:11 AM PDT by lewislynn (Meghan Kelley...#sand--Rosie, the Don was right-- Hillary, lipstick on a pig)
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