The Dutch politician and pro-abortion campaigner Lilianne Ploumen has been made a dame in the pontifical Order of St Gregory the Great, with the Vatican claiming that the award was part of a standard procedure.
A Vatican spokeswoman said the award was “diplomatic practice” when an official is part of a state visit to the Vatican. The medal was “in keeping with the diplomatic practice of exchanging honours between delegations during official visits by heads of state or government to the Vatican,” the spokeswoman said.
“Therefore, it is not at all an endorsement of the political views in favour of abortion or birth control that Ms Ploumen promotes.”
Ms Ploumen said: “I assume I have been granted the pontifical medal in the context of the Dutch state visit to the Vatican in June 2017.” She was part of the delegation as the then trade minister.
It is not known whether the Pope was aware of the decision.
Ms Ploumen, a senior Labour Party figure, has been criticised for her record on life issues. Last year she launched a campaign to support abortion after the US government cut off funding for overseas NGOs which provide, facilitate or campaign for abortion.
The organisation Ms Ploumen founded, She Decides, raised around £290 million to support such NGOs.
Much of the funding has gone to UN agencies, while five per cent has gone to the International Planned Parenthood Foundation and three per cent to Marie Stopes International.
Ms Ploumen told the Catholic Herald that she was “very honoured”. Speaking to a Dutch radio station, she said it showed the Vatican was being more “progressive”.
Vatican adviser ‘should resign’ over contraception comments
A new member of the Pontifical Academy for Life has been urged to resign after saying that certain situations “require” artificial contraception.
Fr Maurizio Chiodi made the remark in a lecture at the Pontifical University in Rome. He said there were “circumstances – I refer to Amoris Laetitia, Chapter 8 – that, precisely for the sake of responsibility, require contraception.” He did not deny making the remark when contacted by the Catholic Herald.
Catholic philosopher Josef Seifert, a former member of the academy, called on Fr Chiodi to revoke his “grave errors” or resign. Church teaching forbids contraception. Pope Paul VI wrote in Humanae Vitae that “sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive” is “to be absolutely excluded” and that “it is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it”.
According to LifeSiteNews, Fr Chiodi said artificial birth control “could be recognised as an act of responsibility that is carried out, not in order to radically reject the gift of a child, but because in those situations, responsibility calls the couple … to other forms of welcome”.
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