Vatican City, Jan 25, 2009 / 11:06 am
The first sign of Vatican disappointment with the Obama administration came on Saturday, when Holy See officials reacted to the President’s executive order reversing the Mexico City policy, thus making federal money available to promote abortion internationally.
Obama signed the executive order canceling the eight-year-old restrictions on Friday, the third day of his presidency.
In an interview published Saturday in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Rino Fisichella said that "among the many good things that he could have done, Barack Obama instead has chosen the worst."
"What is important is to know how to listen... without locking oneself into ideological visions with the arrogance of a person who, having the power, thinks they can decide on life and death," he added.
"If this is one of the first acts of President Obama, with all due respect, it seems to me that the path towards disappointment will have been very short," Archbishop Fisichella said.
He concluded by pointing out that "I do not believe that those who voted for him (Obama) took into consideration ethical themes, which were astutely left aside during the election debate. The majority of the American population does not take the same position as the president and his team."
Another Vatican official, Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, joined Fisichella in his criticism to Obama’s pro-abortion decision.
Although retired as former President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Sgreccia's is still one of the most sought after opinions on bioethical issues in the Roma Curia.
"This deals a harsh blow not only to us Catholics but to all the people across the world that fight against the slaughter of innocents that is carried out with abortion," Sgreccia told the Italian news agency ANSA .