Update:
Nancy Pelosi spins Pope meeting
Vatican, House Speaker give different stories
The Vatican Press office and the Speaker of the House have released different versions of a private meeting between the Holy Father and Nancy Pelosi last Wednesday. The Pope spoke of “the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.” Pelosi’s statement didn’t mention that discussion. Read more.
Pope says Catholic Legislators Must Protect Life in Meeting with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(18 Feb 09 – RV) Source: Vatican Radio: “Following the General Audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs 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 cooperation 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.
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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.
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Pope gently rebukes Pelosi
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=2026
Pope Benedict XVI met on Wednesday with US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and gently chided the American lawmaker for her support of legal abortion. Pelosi, who describes herself as an “ardent Catholic,” met briefly with the Pontiff after his regular weekly public audience. The Pope regularly meets with visiting dignitaries after his Wednesday audience, and ordinarily no public statements are issued. But following his meeting with Pelosi, that meeting, the Vatican released this unusual public statement:
“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.”
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Were They at the Same Meeting?
Commenting on House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel explains that Pelosi “has now been informed, and by a world-class intellectual who happens to be the universal pastor of the Catholic Church, that she is, in fact, confused [about what her church teaches on the morality of abortion, and why,] and that both her spiritual life and her public service are in jeopardy because of that.”
http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.3712/pub_detail.asp
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Meeting between Archbishop Niederauer, Pelosi
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=2042
A spokesman for Nancy Pelosi has told Real Catholic TV and <i>Our Sunday Visitor</i> that San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer met with the House Speaker on February 8 to discuss her position on abortion. Commenting on the meeting, spokesman Brendan Daly said, “She is not changing her position on abortion.” The meeting took place in such secrecy that San Francisco archdiocesan spokesman Maurice Healy was evidently unaware it had taken place; he told <i>Our Sunday Visitor</i> on February 13 that “she has not been able to arrange such a meeting on her schedule, despite our putting forward several available dates.”