I've confirmed with Nancy Pelosi's office that, at the Vatican's
request, no photos of Pelosi's Wednesday yesterday with Pope
Benedict XVI will be released.
So even if the pontiff had no choice but to meet with Pelosi, he
wasn't going to allow her to turn it into a press op.
In fact, as George Neumayr
related in today's Spectator, Benedict took the
opportunity to chastise Pelosi and remind her that there is
absolutely no place in the Catholic Church for a politician
working hard to undermine core Church teachings. Of course,
Pelosi released a report of her own, with a much more favorable
interpretation of how the meeting unfolded. But a picture is
worth a thousand words (or perhaps a million of Pelosi's tortured
emissions), and the spin isn't going to work without a
corroborating photo.
Perhaps someone in the Holy See warned the pope that Pelosi is
not above playing cheap political games with her religion.
First was her abysmal foray into embryology during the Democratic
National Convention, when, in a moment of acute imbecility, she
cited St. Augustine in a justification for abortion premised on
fetuses not being yet "ensouled." This unprovoked
misrepresentation of black-and-white Church doctrine elicited a
slew of letters of censure from bishops around the country.
Archbishop Niederauer of San Francisco, Pelosi's district,
publicly requested a meeting to review the Church's stance on
abortion. Pelosi publicly accepted, hoping to recoup her Catholic
credentials.
Needless to say, that promise to meet with Niederauer was simply
a ruse. Although she takes credit for making frequent trips back
to her district, Pelosi managed to avoid Niederauer until last
week. Even then she only met him in the most furtive
way possible, keeping the press from covering what was surely
an unflattering moment for her.
This whole episode, which unfolded while she was pulling all the
political strings to shepherd the disastrous bailout and stimulus
congress, underscores the reality that there is no one Pelosi
will not exploit for political gain. Not her Catholic
constituents, not her bishop, not the pope, not the unborn.
Luckily the pope picked up on this trait. As the head of the
papal state, on some level he is obligated to meet with political
leaders. Pelosi is, after all, third in line for the presidency.
While honoring this duty, Benedict did not leave Pelosi any room
for tricks. He gave her only a 15-minute audience after his daily
general audience. Note that when he met with Gordon Brown of the
UK today, their talk lasted over 30 minutes. The Vatican paper
L'Osservatore Romano also carried a front-page article
by the prime minister, an unprecedented gesture. All the major
publications covering their meeting had pictures of them smiling,
shaking hands, sitting together, etc. -- the kind of pictures
Pelosi surely had in mind when she trekked to Vatican City.
Unfortunately, I don’t think she'll ever learn her lesson.
