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NEW YORK, September 27, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  John Allen, the Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter reports that Julian Hunte, a pro-abortion Catholic politician in the West Indies, was made a Knight of the Grand Cross Pian Order by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano.  The honor was bestowed as Hunte completed his term as president of the United Nations General Assembly.  The honor which was presented in New York is especially controversial in light of Vatican approved US Conference of Bishops regulations which prohibit honors being given to pro-abortion policians. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062102.html )  Allen notes that “Hunte was also, however, the deciding vote last year on a bill in the upper chamber of the St. Lucian parliament that decriminalized abortion in that Caribbean nation. In December, that measure passed by five votes to four, with Hunte in favor.”  Commenting at the time Hunte said, “I think every woman must have a choice. I am a pro-choice man.”  One priest from St. Lucia, Fr. Linus Clovis, who is appealing to the Pope to reverse the decision to award Hunte, summed up his concern saying, “It makes a mockery of what we stand for and it compromises us because now the public perception on abortion will be: ‘What are you complaining about? The Vatican does not see anything wrong with it.’ “

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