By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Only hours before receiving an award from Planned Parenthood, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the tilma inside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and asked the rector, “who painted it?”
Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica on March 27, the last day of her recent trip to Mexico, and brought a bouquet of white flowers to the Tilma “on behalf of the American people.” The tilma had been lowered from its usual altar for the occasion of Clinton’s visit. After observing it for a few minutes, she turned to the rector, Msgr. Diego Monroy, and asked, “Who painted it?” to which he responded, “God!”
Mrs. Clinton then went to the quemador – the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle. As she left the basilica a half hour later, she told some Mexicans gathered to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!”
That evening, she flew to Houston, Texas where she received the Margaret Sanger Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation America. The award, named for the organization’s founder, a well-known eugenicist, is given to a person who has made outstanding contributions in the area of women’s “reproductive rights.”
During her acceptance speech, Mrs. Clinton told the gathering that reproductive rights, as well as women’s rights and empowerment, are key issues in President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.
She vowed her support for these “rights” during her tenure as Secretary of State, calling them the building blocks of democracy. She said societies that deny and demean women’s roles are ones more likely to engage in behavior that is negative, antidemocratic and that leads to violence and extremism.
However, not everyone was applauding Mrs. Clinton. According to the Associated Press, thousands of members of the pro-life movement held a vigil outside.
Among them was Sheila Theisen who said “We want this administration to know that we don’t want to pay for the death of all these children.”
Ms. Theisen was referring to the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding that Planned Parenthood receives every year.
“There’s no reason to be killing children,” Theisen said. “There’s no reason.”
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