Pope calls Italy’s foremost abortion promoter one of nation’s ‘forgotten greats’

In a February 8 interview with one of Italy’s most prominent dailies, Corriere Della Serra, Pope Francis praised Italy’s leading proponent of abortion – Emma Bonino — as one of the nation’s “forgotten greats,” comparing her to great historical figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman.

Bonino founded the “Information Centre on Sterilisation and Abortion”, which claims to conduct around 4,000 abortions a year. Bonino recorded herself as having personally committed 10,141 abortions.  She has also openly promoted euthanasia, homosexual “marriage,” legalization of recreational drugs, graphic sex education, and more.

The Pope admitted that Bonino thinks “differently” from Catholics, yet still proceeded with giving her high praise: “They say: ‘This is a person who thinks very differently from us [Catholics].’ True, but never mind. We have to look at people, at what they do.”

Bonino is quoted by Radio Radicale responding to Pope Francis’ nice compliment, saying, “These words are what have pleased me most in my entire life.”

“That is what I have tried to practice with my radical teammates my life, namely that you can speak even if you have different ideas. I do not think I need to say more, it would be disrespectful.”

A Life Dedicated to the Abortion Movement

Emma Bonino entered Italian politics as a radical feminist and leftist extremist in the ‘70s after she had already made her name synonymous with illegal abortion. She boasted in the press of having invented a hand-held vacuum aspirator out of a jam jar and a bicycle pump. She describes the machine as“a bicycle pump, a plastic dilator and a vase [jar] in which you create a vacuum, and it ends the contents of the uterus.”

She was arrested for the then-illegal activity, spending a few days in jail, but was eventually acquitted and entered politics, particularly Italy’s “Radical Party”, dedicating her life to the promotion and legalisation of abortion in Italy. She was instrumental in organising the referendum that led to the eventual legalisation of abortion in Italy.

Along with Marco Pannella, leader of the Radical Party, Bonino has fought numerous battles for civil rights and individual liberty, mainly concerned with divorce, the legalisation of abortion, the legalisation of drugs, and for sexual and religious freedoms.  Readers will note that this is the same Marco Pannella whom the pope reportedly telephoned in May 2015, telling the radical leftist to “carry on”. Pannella said later, “With Pope Francis we have a lot in common. We radicals have anticipated many of the things that Francis says and does.”

In fact, In April 2014, Bonino called Pope Francis to help end the hunger strike of Radical Party leader Marco Pannella. The Pope made the call and promised to join Pannella in his bid to better conditions in Italian prisons. It is also notable that Francis’ favourite interviewer, Eugenio Scalfari, is also a Radical Party founder and luminary.

Pro-Life Leaders in Shock

Responding to the Pope’s praise of Bonino, pro-life leaders in Italy expressed disbelief.  “How can the pope praise a woman that is best known in Italy for practicing illegal abortion and promoting abortion?” commented Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, who was until last year the head of the Rome office of Human Life International.

Toni Brandi, President of the pro-life group Pro-Vita, said: “As laymen it is our duty to criticize the person that is seated on Peter ‘s chair when our conscience tells us he is wrong, as the Pope is infallible only when he talks ex- cathedra. We must pray that the Holy Spirit brings Francis on the right road which is the Gospel and the Magisterium.”

Did the Pope have full knowledge of Bonino’s abortion cause?

Suggestions that the Pope did not know about Bonino’s controversial stances are dismissed by Italians since she was famously arrested for illegal abortions and then became a politician who has led the fight for the legalization of abortion in the nation. Pope Francis has also been personally acquainted with Bonino and the Radical Party leadership for years and been openly criticized for his warm relations with them, which have never involved open calls to repentance.

In her capacity as Italian foreign minister, Bonino, along with President Georgio Napolitano and his key ministers, was granted an audience with Pope Francis on June 8, 2013. In May 2015 the Vatican Insider reported that Pope Francis personally invited Bonino to an audience in the Paul VI Hall.

It will be helpful to remember what the U.S. Bishops taught in this regard, in their 2004 document “Catholics in Political Life”. The U.S. Bishops said that they must warn and counsel politicians that by supporting abortion they are cooperating in evil. Moreover, they said that persistently pro-abortion politicians should not be honored by the Catholic community and by Catholic institutions. The bishops’ document directed that such politicians “should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

from LifeSite News