Spokesmen from both the White House and Vatican City announced on Tuesday that President Barack Obama will meet with Pope Benedict XVI on July 10 during the G-8 summit. Obama’s wife, Michelle, will accompany him to the meeting.

            Abortion will almost certainly be a topic of discussion in the meeting, since the Catholic Church is one of the most vocal supporters of respect for human life. Church doctrine states that it is a mortal sin (a serious offense which, committed with full knowledge of the gravity of the sin and done with full consent, and not properly confessed and absolved before death, condemns a person to Hell) for any Catholic to have an abortion, participate in one, or otherwise cooperate with one (CCC 2272).


            In February, the Holy Father met with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a pro-abortion Catholic. While the meeting was closed to reporters, the Vatican released a statement saying that the Pope urged Pelosi to protect all human life, from conception to natural death. He also reaffirmed that Church teaching on abortion applies to all Catholics, especially lawmakers.


            Even the staunchest of pro-abortion activists can have a change of heart. Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” from Roe v. Wade became pro-life after seeing a fetal development poster in 1995. Bernard Nathanson, an abortionist and one of the founders of National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America), became pro-life in the 1970s after the development of ultrasound. Those are just the prominent conversions. Prayer vigils outside abortion clinics, most notably 40 Days for Life, have converted hundreds of abortion clinic workers and continue to do so. Can the Pope show Obama the truth about abortion? We can only hope and pray.

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