Pope Francis granted a private audience in the Vatican to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Saturday, just two weeks after the House passage of the most radical pro-abortion legislation ever introduced.
Passing the Women’s Health Protection Act is a “very exciting day,” said Pelosi, a Catholic, on September 23. “We’ve long been supporters of Roe v. Wade. We haven’t been able to codify it because we never had a Democratic pro‑choice Majority with a Democratic President, and now we do, and now we do.”
“Every woman, everywhere has a constitutional right to basic reproductive health, yet for years that has been questioned by some,” she added. “And so, you know about the Texas law and the rest of that.”
It was a spiritual, personal and official honor to have an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis this morning. pic.twitter.com/nrWYyApnMQ
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) October 9, 2021
For his part, Pope Francis has insisted that abortion is “murder” and that abortionists are like “hit men” who are paid to assassinate those deemed inconvenient.
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is a grave moral evil and attaches its severest penalty of automatic excommunication for those who participate in it.
“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” declares the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”
“Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law,” it adds.
The Catechism also notes the evil committed by those who “formally cooperate” in abortion, such as those who promote its legality or seek to expand abortion rights.
“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense,” the Catechism states. “The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
In response to Pelosi’s jubilation over the Women’s Health Protection Act, her archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, said that such a position is foreign to the Catholic faith.
In his statement, Cordileone said it is “especially shameful that any self-professed Catholic would be implicated in such an evil, let alone advocate for it,” adding that the House bill “is surely the type of legislation one would expect from a devout Satanist, not a devout Catholic.”
“To Catholic politicians in particular, I implore you to listen to the words of Pope Francis who just last weekend, during his flight back to Rome from Slovakia, said: ‘Abortion is more than a problem. Abortion is homicide,’” the archbishop said.
“Any reasonable person with a basic sense of morality and inkling of decency cannot but shudder in horror at such a heinous evil being codified in law,” he declared, adding that the legislation “is nothing short of child sacrifice.”
Story cited here.
