Posted on 02/11/2010 1:54:00 PM PST by NYer
Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., speaks next to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., right, in Washington during a Capitol Hill news conference on America's Affordable Health Choices July 22.
Perhaps it’s old hat. Maybe we’re dead to it now, inured from continued shock — chastened, numb.
In a recent interview that received surprisingly little attention even from Catholics, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a Catholic, talked to Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift. Pelosi was asked about her “brushes with the [Catholic Church] hierarchy.”
Madam Speaker knew what that meant: abortion.
“I have some concerns about the Church’s position respecting a woman’s right to choose,” she shared, as if endeavoring to correct the Church’s errors — but not without a heavy heart: “I practically mourn this difference of opinion.”
This difference of opinion was most lamentable, added the lifelong Catholic — who attended Catholic private school, Catholic colleges (Trinity College in Washington, D.C.), and Mass in the San Francisco (St. Vincent de Paul Church) and Washington dioceses — for a couple of reasons. First, because she was “raised to believe … what I profess,” and, second, because, “we are all endowed with a free will.” Indeed, insisted Pelosi, “women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will.”
It is the second part of Pelosi’s “because” that concerns me here. It is consistent with what she has stated for years, including in previous interviews with Clift.
In a 2006 interview with Clift, Pelosi regretted that her family is “very pro-life” and would “like it if I were not so vocally pro-choice.” But, she proclaimed, “To me it isn’t even a question. God has given us a free will.”
Since then, Pelosi has had several colorful, high-profile brushes with the Church hierarchy, ranging from publicly expressed differences with no less than the Holy Father himself — articulated during Pope Benedict’s visit to America in April 2008 — to her parting of ways with no less than St. Augustine, which she elucidated for the entire nation in a jaw-dropping interview with Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press” in August 2008. These “differences” landed her a remarkable private audience with the Pope at the Vatican last year, one that produced further divergent opinions — by Pelosi and by the Pope’s spokesman.
Yet the most fundamental split is between not the congresswoman and any Church official, but between the congresswoman and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and specifically on this matter of abortion and free will.
Worse, this split, hatched by an almost unbelievably flawed understanding of Church teaching, has, like a plague, spread among Pelosi’s colleagues, disproportionately infecting fellow Democrats, who appear uniquely susceptible.
This Pelosian line of reasoning — let’s call it the Pelosi Doctrine — has found a sudden surge and renewed virulence in the Northeast especially.
One recent manifestation was the contamination of yet another Kennedy: Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy — forcing Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin to administer emergency remedial education to this strayed member of the flock.
So, what of this? Does the Pelosi Doctrine have any basis in Catholic teaching?
Of course not. And it is vital to begin the process of inoculation.
The Catechism is unequivocal on abortion. In fact, “abortion” is literally the first word in the glossary of the Catechism — where it is deemed “gravely contrary to the moral law” and a “crime against human life.” Glossary aside, the core of the text, easily located via the index, addresses abortion at length (Nos. 2270-2274).
When Speaker Pelosi publicly misinterpreted this black-and-white explication, her Church swiftly corrected her by citing these sections of the Catechism. When she told Brokaw that she, as “an ardent, practicing Catholic,” who had “studied” the issue of “when life begins” for a “long time,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops simply pointed to the Catechism (No. 2271): “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”
The Catechism couldn’t be more absolute on abortion. But most relevant to the issue here — the Pelosi Doctrine — is the Catechism’s teaching on free will and the morality of human acts (Nos. 1730-1756). As an “ardent” Catholic and “longtime” student of the faith, the congresswoman should take a few minutes to read these sections. As I understand she is extraordinarily busy as speaker of the House, I will highlight a few brief passages:
“There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to ‘the slavery of sin’” (No. 1733).
“The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything” (No. 1740).
Such fundamental teaching builds on a pyramid of sacred Scripture, Tradition and the magisterium. To employ one’s freedom as opportunities for wrong — for the flesh, for evil, for illicit things — is strictly prohibited (see Galatians 5:14).
The Church agrees (quoting St. Irenaeus) that man “is created with free will and is master over his acts” (No. 1730). It would be a fatal mistake, however, to thereby conclude — as the congresswoman does but the Catechism does not — that such freedom allows one to deliberately contravene God’s law and Church teaching. Freedom should never be used in willful service of advancing evil, especially something the Church has clearly declared an evil for centuries.
In fact, Pelosi needs to understand that her mistaken position places her in dangerous terrain. It is precisely because God has blessed her and her fellow humanity with freedom that she is thus “a moral subject” (Catechism, No. 1749) and thus attains a heightened personal responsibility. She will be held accountable for her free-will choices.
All of this leaves the Church with a familiar problem: the desperate need for bishops, priests, nuns, laity and, above all, catechists, to do their jobs and do them right. We should seize Pelosi’s incessant public error as a window of opportunity, as a chance to gently but forcefully explain the Church’s timeless, beautiful position in favor of life.
From the pulpit, to the office, to the kitchen table, to the classroom, let’s look to the Pelosi Doctrine as a teachable moment to shed the light of truth.
Pelosi must really be ticked off that she can’t control Rome.
To oput it simply Pelosi has denied the Church to gain political power.
She has sold out God for power.
She still believes the Catholic Church teaching,but she thinks somehow she can talk herself into Heaven by showing St. Peter what a powewrful woman she as on earth.
Rot’s; O’ Ruck Nancy, you cannot BS the Lord.
It is too bad that Pelosi’s Mother didn’t have the right to choose.
The Nerve!
I don't even follow this "reasoning". She seems to be saying that since we have free will we can do whatever we want. Thus, nothing is a "sin" because we do everything as a result of our personal decision making process (fee will). This contradicts just about every single page of the Bible.
“elosi must really be ticked off that she can’t control Rome.”
Sounds like Rome is ticked off that it can’t control Pelosi.
We have free will to choose to do good or to do evil. The right of choice does not eliminate the consequences of choosing evil. Pelosi seems to believe that because we can choose then no choice is worthy of approbation.
Excellent piece. Thanks.
Good post here.
How can someone write have an article like this and not even mention her Archbishop at all, and what he has done or not done as concerns Pelosi?
IT IS THE BISHOPS FAULT. It is a scandal that dwarfs the homosexualist priest scandal. By not treating abortion as what the bishops say it is, they are telling Catholics by their lack of discipline that it must not really be that big a deal. And if abortion is what the bishops say it is, then it really is a big deal.
Let’s change her quotes about abortion to something else abhorent and see if the bishops would tolerate it:
“I have some concerns about the Church’s position respecting a woman’s right to choose to eat human flesh.”
“women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will, and partake in cannibal feasts”
Pelosi regretted that her family is “very anti-cannabalism” and would “like it if I were not so vocally pro-cannabalism.”
To me it isn’t even a question. God has given us a free will to eat human flesh or not”
If the debate was about cannabilism, do you really think the bishop’s would tolerate Catholic leaders being for cannabalism?
Freegards, thanks for all the awesome pings
**This difference of opinion was most lamentable, added the lifelong Catholic**
The difference of opinion was most understandable — considering the life of the newborn child, added the liefelong Catholic.
There — fixed it! LOL!
If that were only her view......sigh.....instead she is a CINO.
| 1: | CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2271 (618 bytes ) preview document matches 1 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2271.htm |
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| 2: | CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2272 (580 bytes ) preview document matches 2 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2272.htm |
96% |
| 3: | CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2322 (290 bytes ) preview document matches 2 From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a "criminal" practice (GS 27 § 3), URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2322.htm |
96% |
| 4: | CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 2274 (554 bytes ) preview document matches gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent URL: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2274.htm |
Mysteries in religion are measured by the proud according to their own capacity;
by the humble, according to the power of God;
the humble glorify God for them,
the proud exalt themselves against them!.
-- John Henry Cardinal Newman
This woman is terribly in need of prayer.
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