Pelosi Visits the Pope

Controversy and general interest is growing in Europe and the United States as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is set to meet with Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday (Feb 18th). An article from the Boston Globe, written by Michael Paulson, details the different stories and intriguing issues surrounding this diplomatic visit.
Paulson outlines the controversy that Pelosi’s visit will bring to the Vatican and Catholics all around the world (namely the United States). Pelosi is known as a practicing Catholic but differs greatly in some very traditional Catholic beliefs such as the legality/morality of abortion. Pelosi supports abortion rights (a complicated issue, Paulson would have been better to detail her views) which goes against what many conservative Catholics in the US believe.
Opposition to the Speaker’s visit comes by way of Reverend Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International. Rev Euteneuer does not necessarily oppose the visit by Pelosi, but proclaims the only morally right outcome of this visit would be for the Pope to persuade Pelosi to changer her religiously moral status.
The purpose of this visit should not have the type of interest and debate because the issues that should be discussed between the figures should involve little-to-none about religion. Pelosi represents a nation just as the Pope represents Vatican City. While the Pope’s role in his government is of an obvious religious relationship, Pelosi’s is strictly politics. The only discussion that is appropriate for the two leaders is that which reflects the political needs/interest of their respective nations. Pelosi is the congressional delegate to Italy, a role that does not entitle her to discuss anything of a religious matter unless it pertains to the rights and legalities held in our constitution.
The author poses the question of if either or both are right to meet with each other. If the purpose of this meeting is to forward relations and political interest of each respective state, then the meeting is fully justified. This would hold true just as if any US representative was meeting with any other theocracy in the world. It comes down to the meat of the topic at hand and whether Pelosi indulges any of the Pope’s attempts to combine politics with religion, two very separate spheres of influences in many American lives.