Pro-choice Nancy Pelosi, 81, greets the Pope ,84, at the Vatican following US appeal courts decision to REINSTATE Texas' ban on abortions after six weeks
Pope Francis has met with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who has come under criticism from some bishops in the United States for her support for abortion rights.
Their meeting took place in Vatican City on Saturday, several weeks before Joe Biden is expected to meet the Pope when the the president is in Rome for talks between leaders of the Group of 20 major economies.
The Vatican announced Pelosi's audience with the Pope in its daily bulletin but gave no details.
Biden, the second Catholic U.S. president, has said he is personally opposed to abortion but, as a politician, cannot impose his views. Pelosi, who has five children, has said she supports a woman's right to choose.
Biden's administration and Pelosi have urged judges to block a new Texas law which bars abortions from six weeks, saying it is unconstitutional.
The ban was temporarily reinstated on Friday by a conservative-leaning appeals court.
Pope Francis met with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Vatican City on Saturday
Pelosi said her audience with the Pope was a 'spiritual, personal and official honor'
Their meeting took place in Vatican City on Saturday, several weeks before Joe Biden is expected to meet the Pope
Pelosi was joined by her husband Paul at the meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
The Catholic Church teaches that human life begins at the moment of conception and Biden and Pelosi have been criticized by conservative Catholic media and U.S. conservative bishops, some of whom say neither should be allowed to receive communion.
Last month the Pope was asked about the U.S. communion debate, and told reporters abortion is 'murder', even soon after conception, and appeared to criticize U.S. Catholic bishops for dealing with the issue in a political rather than pastoral way.
'Communion is not a prize for the perfect ... communion is a gift, the presence of Jesus and his Church,' the Pope said.
In June, a divided conference of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops voted to draft a statement on communion that some bishops say should specifically admonish Catholic politicians, including Biden. They take up the issue again next month.
In a statement, Pelosi said her audience with the Pope was a 'spiritual, personal and official honor'.
'His Holiness´s leadership is a source of joy and hope for Catholics and for all people, challenging each of us to be good stewards of God´s creation, to act on climate, to embrace the refugee, the immigrant and the poor, and to recognize the dignity and divinity in everyone,' Pelosi said in a statement.
The Vatican announced Pelosi's audience with the Pope in its daily bulletin but gave no details
Pope Francis exchanges gifts with US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Last month the Pope was asked about the U.S. communion debate, and told reporters abortion is 'murder'
After Pelosi met former Pope Benedict in 2009, the Vatican said he had told her that legislators and other public figures should help create 'a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development'.
The archbishop in Pelosi's home city of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, has said public figures who support abortion should be denied communion in his archdiocese and has urged Catholics to pray for Pelosi's 'conversion of heart'.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., has not tried to stop Biden, a regular church-goer, from receiving communion.
Biden's meeting with the Pope will be the first since his election although they have met several times before, including when he was vice-president to Barack Obama.
Pelosi is in Rome for a Parliamentary Speakers' Summit ahead of the G20 as well as a meeting of parliamentary leaders before of the U.N. Climate Change Summit (COP20) next month in Glasgow.
Pelosi expressed gratitude 'for the immense moral clarity and urgency that His Holiness continues to bring to the climate crisis,' the statement said.
Pelosi is in Rome for a Parliamentary Speakers' Summit ahead of the G20 as well as a meeting of parliamentary leaders before of the U.N. Climate Change Summit (COP20) next month in Glasgow.
Pope Francis on Saturday called on lawmakers worldwide to overcome 'the narrow confines' of partisan politics to quickly reach consensus on fighting climate change.
Francis referred to a joint appeal he and other religious leaders signed this week that calls for governments to commit to ambitious goals at the U.N. conference, which experts consider a critical opportunity to tackle the threat of global warming.
'To meet this challenge, everyone has a role to play,'' Francis told the visiting lawmakers from many countries. 'That of political and government leaders is especially important, and indeed crucial.'
'This demanding change of direction will require great wisdom, foresight and concern for the common good: in a word, the fundamental virtues of good politics,'' Francis said.
After their meeting Saturday, Pelosi called the pontiff's 2015 encyclical exhorting people to protect the environment 'a powerful challenge to the global community to act decisively on the climate crisis with special attention to the most vulnerable communities.'
During their meeting, Pelosi expressed gratitude 'for the immense moral clarity and urgency that His Holiness continues to bring to the climate crisis,' the statement said.
After their meeting Saturday, Pelosi called the pontiff's 2015 encyclical exhorting people to protect the environment 'a powerful challenge to the global community'
After their meeting, Pelosi said: 'His Holiness´s leadership is a source of joy and hope for Catholics and for all people'
Francis said earlier he intended to participate in the U.N.'s upcoming COP26 conference, but the Vatican announced Friday that he would not attend and the Vatican delegation would be led by the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
No explanation was given, but the 84-year-old pope underwent intestinal surgery in July.
The pope expressed hope Saturday that the lawmakers' efforts at the climate conference and beyond 'will be illuminated by the two important principles of responsibility and solidarity.'
'We owe this to the young, to future generations,' he said.
Caring for humanity's 'common home,' Francis said, 'is not just a matter of discouraging and penalizing improper practices, but also, and above all, of concretely encouraging new paths to pursue' that are better suited to climate-protection objectives and to contributing 'to the positive outcome of COP26.'
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