On Thursday, April 17, I reported that a Senate Democrat was apparently blocking a resolution honoring Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of his apostolic journey to the United States. Now, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf over at the indispensable blog What Does the Prayer Really Say? points to reports confirming that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), an outspoken advocate of abortion, held up the resolution.

Her objection? The original language of the resolution declared that "Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out for the weak and vulnerable, witnessing to the value of each and every human life." According to the California Catholic Daily, Senator Boxer refused to assent to the resolution until Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), a Catholic convert who was one of the sponsors of the resolution, "agreed to remove any reference to 'human life.'" In order not to hold up the resolution any longer, Senator Brownback agreed.

A spokesman for Senator Boxer told the weblog Politico that "We are very pleased we were able to reach an agreement with Senator Brownback to remove the political language and pass this resolution welcoming Pope Benedict." It's interesting that a reference to "the value of each and every human life" should be regarded today as political language. As recently as the Clinton administration, Democratic supporters of abortion used to declare that they wanted abortion to be "safe, legal, and rare." If "each and every human life" is not to be valued, however, then abortion is never likely to be "rare," and the Culture of Death that Pope Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, spoke so eloquently against will continue to prevail.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)