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Pelosi Criticized For Meeting Pope As Abortion Debate Rages in US

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is being roundly criticized for putting up a humiliating photo of herself with Pope Francis.

Pelosi, a self-proclaimed Catholic, has come under fire for her support for abortion.

Pelosi was joined at the Apostolic Palace by her husband Paul Pelosi at the Vatican.

It didn’t take long for many conservatives and lawmakers to criticize Pelosi.

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed Pelosi after her trip, arguing that the “lame duck speaker” is on her way out of office.

“Where was she last month when the Democrats were working on reconciliation? The U.K.,” McCarthy said, noting that currently “she’s back in Europe when she’s supposed to be concerned about the debt ceiling.”

Beyond that, the Catholic Church teaches that abortion is morally wrong and kills an unborn child.

Pelosi and Joe Biden have also been criticized for their support of abortion, with some arguing they should be barred from receiving communion.

The Catholic archbishop for Pelosi’s home diocese in San Francisco has called on the faithful to pray for the California Democrat and to fast for her “conversion of heart” regarding her support for abortion.

“A conversion of heart of the majority of our congressional representatives is needed on this issue, beginning with the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone noted in a statement, referring to the issue.

“I am therefore inviting all Catholics to join in a massive and visible campaign of prayer and fasting for Speaker Pelosi: Commit to praying one rosary a week and fasting on Fridays for her conversion of heart,” he said.

The archbishop went on to note Pelosi’s “maternal heart,” a reference to how she speaks lovingly of her children and grandchildren.

“Pope Francis has called abortion murder, the equivalent of hiring a hitman to solve a problem,” the archbishop said. “The solution to a woman in a crisis pregnancy is not violence but love.”

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“Please join me in praying the rosary and fasting for a conversion of Speaker Pelosi’s maternal heart to embracing the goodness and dignity of human life not only after birth but in the womb as well,” he continued.

“We must never lose sight of this fact: In the last 50 years, in the United States alone, 66,000,000 babies have been murdered in their mothers’ wombs,” San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone said in May.

“This is not a matter about which one can use judgment. It is a fact,” the bishop added.

“If we look around us and see what is happening in our society today, we will see that this fact once again demonstrates that violence begets violence,” Cordileone said. “The response to a woman in a crisis pregnancy is not violence, but love.”

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In an op-ed for the Washington Post last month, Cordileone argued that an ex-communication is a real option for Catholic politicians who support abortion, including Pelosi and Joe Biden:

The archbishop said, “you cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings.”

“This summer, we provoked an uproar by discussing whether public officials who support abortion should receive the sacrament of the Eucharist,” Cordileone wrote. “We were accused of inappropriately injecting religion into politics, of butting in where we didn’t belong.”

“I see matters differently,” the archbishop continued. “When considering what duties Catholic bishops have with respect to prominent laymen in public life who openly oppose church teachings on abortion, I look to this country’s last great human rights movement — still within my living memory — for inspiration on how we should respond.”

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