Abortion

Pope Francis is appealing to “a moral law written into human nature itself” to assert the sacredness of every human life, including that of the unborn. A “fight against exclusion,” the Pope said in his address before the United Nations General Assembly Friday, demands “absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions.”

In an appearance on MSNBC following Pope Francis’s address to Congress, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the government will remain open and Planned Parenthood will remain funded.

In “Laudato Si” Pope Francis reminds us that human beings possess a “particular dignity above other creatures” that “inculcates esteem for each person and respect for others.” He expresses the need to “genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be” and questions how this is possible if collectively we “fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is un­comfortable and creates difficulties.” Will the U.N. hear that message?

For years now, Pope Francis’ more conservative defenders have stated that his words have been consistently misinterpreted by the media. There’s truth to that. But there was no way to misinterpret his speech today, delivered in plain English to an adoring left.

Pope Francis had an unscheduled meeting with the Little Sisters of the Poor, a community of nuns who have been engaged in a major legal battle against the Obama administration’s HHS contraception mandate.

Among the several controversial points in his historic address to the U.S. Congress Thursday, Pope Francis lobbied strongly for the abolition of the death penalty, while remaining mostly silent on the issue of abortion. Pro-abortion Catholic politicians including Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden will undoubtedly capitalize on the Pope’s omission to continue snubbing Church teaching on the sanctity of life.