Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee wrote a scathing op-ed in The Daily Caller Tuesday hitting President Obama for making the Pope’s visit a “cattle call” for advocates of abortion and gay marriage.  Huckabee notes that the Pope has been a strong defender of the right to life and traditional marriage:

The Catholic Church is unapologetically pro-life. As the Pope has said, “Human life is always sacred … not as a matter of faith, but of reason and science!” The Catholic Church is also pro-marriage. When the issue emerged in his native Argentina, Pope Francis blasted same-sex marriage as a “destructive pretension against the plan of God.”

Why then does the Obama White House invite crude critics of the Catholic Church and its teachings to welcome the Pope to America for the first time?

Huckabee calls the President’s decision to invite activists who shun the church’s teachings on life and marriage an exercise in “petty, partisan politics”:

Welcoming a pro-life, pro-marriage leader at the White House with a crowd of abortion and gay rights activists is as classy as hosting an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with an open bar. President Obama should be ashamed of himself.

The Vatican has also pushed back on Obama’s delegation choices, with the Holy See expressing concern that the Obama administration will use the meeting for photo ops and to downplay the difference between the Church and the administration on social issues.

Nick Arnold is a researcher for American Principles In Action.