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.

I already love Pope Benedict XVI, but this makes me add a double scoop of loving on top. I best Nancy Pelosi felt just as comfortable as the Clintons did at the prayer breakfast with Blessed Mother Teresa when she firmly reminded them about life.

In related news it turns out that Nancy Pelosi finally met with her archbishop on the 8th of Feb. It would give me great joy if she does turn towards protecting life – though I am not holding my breath in the main time.

The meeting with the Pope was closed to reporters. But inside sources tell me that the Speaker of the House’s expression was much like this.

Via Catholic Minority Report

With one statement a Catholic priest has tarnished both the Catholic Church and the United Nations. Pretty amazing, huh?

Fr. Miguel D’Escoto, a Catholic priest who was born in America but later joined the communist Sandanistas in Niceragua, is now the current president of the UN General Assembly. Yesterday, D’Escoto called Fidel Castro “the closest thing we have to a saint.”
In case you might think I’m taking this out of context, here’s what he said yesterday at the UN, according to The Real Cuba: “I’m still in debt – and I think all of humanity is – with Fidel Castro, who has dedicated all his life to support and promote solidarity with all the oppressed people of the world. More than a hero, Fidel is the closest thing that we have to a saint in this troubled world.”

Now, according to “The Black Book of Communism,” Castro is responsible for the firing squad murder of at least 14,000 people, tyrannical oppression, and torture.

D’Escoto, whose senior advisers are Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, has not been excoriated publicly for these comments at all as far as I can see.

I can’t help but compare the dramatic reactions our cultural elite have had to Bishop Williamson’s outrageous denying of the Holocaust to their non-reaction to a priest who is head of the U.N. General Assembly who is not only ignoring the actions of a murderous regime but in fact praising the leader of that regime. And not only is he calling Castro ‘a swell guy’ like every celebrity who goes over there but D’Escoto is calling him a saint that we are indebted to.

Will there be calls for him to step down from the U.N., be excommunicated from the Church, travel to Cuba on a listening tour? Well, let’s just say I haven’t heard anything yet.

Well maybe within U.N. General Assembly UN General Assembly, Fidel Castro is “the closest thing we have to a saint.” Seriously though, or as seriously I can take such a profoundly stupid statement, it is amazing how many murderous dictators and their murderous assistants get praised by those on the left. I guess maybe it is just me, but I doubt the Diocese of Havana will be petitioning the Vatican five years after Castro death for sainthood. Though maybe they will declare the first miracle of converting his murderous henchmen Che to a darling of the left with his iconic presence. Che has become Veronica’s veil for the left.