WASHINGTON (LSN.ca) – Ray Flynn, the Boston Mayor who became the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican under former President Clinton, has published a book detailing the strained relations between the Pope and Clinton. In a review of Flynn's John Paul II: A Portrait of the Pope and the Man, George Neumayr writes in the American Spectator (04/11/01) that the most interesting part of the book deals with an encounter between Clinton and the Pope over abortion.
Neumayr relates:
“During the debate over the infamous United Nations conference in Cairo — where the U.S. advanced an insane international right to abortion — the Pope personally asked Flynn to arrange a phone call with Bill Clinton. 'I think it is necessary that I talk to your president,' he said to Flynn. 'We must be a world that values and protects and respects all life. I look forward to talking to him about that.'
Flynn called the White House to communicate this vital message. But there was no response. He called again. And there was still no response. . . Flabbergasted that the White House would stiff the Pope in this manner, Flynn boarded a plane to Washington, marched over to Betty Currie's office, and planted himself in a seat as he ate “bag after bag of the M&Ms that were set out in bowls for visitors.”
Flynn waited all day. Then he returned the next day. Flynn writes that it wasn't until “near the end of the second day of my one-man sit-in, I was called into the White House Situation Room, the bunkerlike room with maps on the walls that is used in national security emergencies. Several top White House aides were already there, including Mac McLarty, the president's chief of staff; Sandy Berger, assistant national security advisor; Nancy Soderberg, from the National Security Council; White House Communications Director Mark Gearan; and Susan Brophy, in charge of legislation for the White House.”
It fell to Timothy Wirth — Clinton's assistant secretary of state, you know, the guy with the condom tree in his office — to inform Flynn of the reason for the stonewalling of the Pope. “Nobody is getting a chance to lobby the president on this one,” he said. Flynn thought this nuts, noting that the Pope is the “leader of one billion Catholics around the world — and over sixty million in the United States. I think the president should make the call, and I came here to tell him so.”
“The room was silent,” writes Flynn. “Finally, Mark Gearan, a veteran of Massachusetts and national Democratic politics, spoke up. 'How about this,' he said. 'Can't we finesse this thing a little bit? Can't we just have the president call the pope as a courtesy.”
Which is what happened. Clinton, after finally giving Flynn some face time, nonchalantly said, “I'd love to talk to him.” Obviously it didn't help. In hock to the pro-abortion feminists who looked the other way during his goatish interludes, Clinton maintained a sacred vigil over America's abortion industry until the end of his presidency.”
(This update is a courtesy of LifeSite Daily News.)
