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Pelosi Ridicules Letter Asking Her to Condemn Abortion or Renounce Catholicism
Life News ^ | 6-25-2013 | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 06/25/2013 7:57:55 PM PDT by smoothsailing

Pelosi Ridicules Letter Asking Her to Condemn Abortion or Renounce Catholicism

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 6/25/13 10:24 PM

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is lauging off a letter from a top pro-life priest who is asking her to revise her pro-abortion position to make it conform to the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church or to leave the Church.

LifeNews reported on Father Frank Pavone’s letter to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Pavone made an appearance on Fox News this weekend to underscore his point.

In an interview with the liberal web site Think Progress, Pelosi attacked Pavone, calling him hysterical:

"My faith is very deep and has been my whole life. I love my faith and my faith has nothing to do with whoever he is. The arrogance of it all! It’s like something ancient, medieval…The Church taught me as I was growing up that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live up to a moral standard. And I respect women’s judgment and values to do that.

Whether this priest thinks his judgment should be another woman’s judgment is absolutely ridiculous to me. But nonetheless it’s what they say. I grant the Church where they are on abortion. That’s where they are, that’s where they have to be. But my faith isn’t about what their position is. My faith is about, Christ is my savior, the church is his church, and has nothing to do with Priests for Life…I wouldn’t even dignify whatever it is they said. It was a highly emotional statement that they made. If it were more intellectual I might have paid attention to it. He was acting hysterically."

Below is the video of Pavone’s appearance followed by the full text of the open letter to Pelosi.

VIDEO LINK

Dear Mrs. Pelosi,

Last Thursday, June 13, you were asked a question in a press briefing that you declined to answer. The question was, “What is the moral difference between what Dr. Gosnell did to a baby born alive at 23 weeks and aborting her moments before birth?”

Given the fact that the Gosnell case has been national news for months now, and that Congress, where you serve as House Democratic Leader, was about to have a vote on banning abortion after 20 weeks fetal age, this was a legitimate question.

Instead of even attempting to answer the question, you resorted to judgmental ad hominem attacks on the reporter who asked it, saying, “You obviously have an agenda. You’re not interested in having an answer.”

Mrs. Pelosi, the problem is that you’re not interested in giving an answer.

Your refusal to answer this question is consistent with your failure to provide an answer to a similar question from me and the members of my Priests for Life staff. Several years ago, we visited your office with the diagrams of dismemberment abortion at 23 weeks, and asked the simple question, “When you say the word ‘abortion,’ is this what you mean?” In response, nothing but silence has emanated from your office.

In what way is this refusal to address an issue of such national importance consistent with the leadership role you are supposed to be exercising? Public servants are supposed to be able to tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public. Apparently, you can’t. Otherwise, you would have been able to explain the difference between a legal medical procedure that kills a baby inside the womb and an act of murder — for which Dr. Gosnell is now serving life sentences — for killing the same baby outside the womb.

Moreover, you stated at the press briefing on June 13, “As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics.”

With this statement, you make a mockery of the Catholic faith and of the tens of millions of Americans who consider themselves “practicing and respectful Catholics” and who find the killing of children — whether inside or outside the womb — reprehensible.

You speak here of Catholic faith as if it is supposed to hide us from reality instead of lead us to face reality, as if it is supposed to confuse basic moral truths instead of clarify them, and as if it is supposed to help us escape the hard moral questions of life rather than help us confront them.

Whatever Catholic faith you claim to respect and practice, it is not the faith that the Catholic Church teaches. And I speak for countless Catholics when I say that it’s time for you to stop speaking as if it were.

Abortion is not sacred ground; it is sacrilegious ground. To imagine God giving the slightest approval to an act that dismembers a child he created is offensive to both faith and reason.

And to say that a question about the difference between a legal medical procedure and murder should not “have anything to do with politics” reveals a profound failure to understand your own political responsibilities, which start with the duty to secure the God-given right to life of every citizen.

Mrs. Pelosi, for decades you have gotten away with betraying and misrepresenting the Catholic faith as well as the responsibilities of public office. We have had enough of it. Either exercise your duties as a public servant and a Catholic, or have the honesty to formally renounce them.

Sincerely,

Fr. Frank Pavone National Director, Priests for Life


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: prolife
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Pretty sure Pelousy would have accused him of making a political statement which would have been quickly followed by a visit from an IRS agent.


21 posted on 06/25/2013 8:19:19 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,)
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To: smoothsailing

How much money involved between Nancy supporting her church and the church kicking her out?


22 posted on 06/25/2013 8:19:54 PM PDT by YukonGreen
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To: ilovesarah2012
She can’t live forever.

Demons often do.

23 posted on 06/25/2013 8:20:26 PM PDT by South40
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To: smoothsailing

Pride goes before a fall. A fall is long overdue.


24 posted on 06/25/2013 8:20:37 PM PDT by Ray76 (Do you reject Obama? And all his works? And all his empty promises?)
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To: smoothsailing

It is funny that Nancy doesn’t realize that “free will” isn’t the thing that saves anyone because it somehow lets people live up to their own personal moral standards.

Free will to live up to your own moral standards hasn’t saved anyone who hasn’t believed in Jesus Christ, or before His coming, the promise from God that Jesus would come (kinsmen redeemer) to save them.

All those people lost during the flood - the entire earth’s population except for 8 people - living by their own moral codes, is monumental evidence Nancy is lying out of ignorance, or on purpose.


25 posted on 06/25/2013 8:21:52 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: smoothsailing

Gods wishes and natural law do not apply to democrats.

At least not here on earth.


26 posted on 06/25/2013 8:23:03 PM PDT by Iron Munro (From nobody to senator, to Conservative savior,)
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To: workerbee

It doesn’t matter. There should be speakout by priests and bishops publicly because these people still keep showing up at church and are still taking sacraments. That should not be allowed to continue.


27 posted on 06/25/2013 8:23:15 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: workerbee
Excommunication is not simply a form of punishment, it is an opportunity to repent. I do agree that the Church should make these opportunities more publicly known, esp. for cases like Pelousy.

I didn't say punishment, but discipline. In either case though it is stupid to lose sight of the fact that it's a corrective and therefore it's not supposed to be pleasant, but an actual painfully-felt cutting of ties...

28 posted on 06/25/2013 8:27:09 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: smoothsailing

She just met with the her Pope in Rome, and received holy communion at the Vatican itself, the woman has nothing to worry about as a Catholic, she is golden.


29 posted on 06/25/2013 8:37:40 PM PDT by ansel12 (Libertarians, Gays = in all marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws.)
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To: smoothsailing

Sometimes I wonder why God doesn’t just strike down the evil people who do such horrible crimes as kill their own babies.

Then I realize that in God’s eyes, I too have sinned and he might just strike me down too. I do hope and believe that he in his infinite mercy has already forgiven my sins as I have asked him to.


30 posted on 06/25/2013 8:37:57 PM PDT by yarddog (There Are Three Things That Remain--Faith, Hope, and Love--and,the Greatest of These is Love..)
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To: ilovesarah2012

From your lips...

Sorry.


31 posted on 06/25/2013 8:43:17 PM PDT by FatherFig1o155 (Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. -- Thomas Paine)
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To: pbear8

Thank you for the explanation. This means it is possible that she has been excommunicated and she is keeping that fact to herself. I can’t begin to imagine how tormented her soul must be.


32 posted on 06/25/2013 8:46:52 PM PDT by smoothsailing
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To: surroundedbyblue
I can’t stand the sight of her but some part of me really feels sorry for her....she is going to suffer ETERNALLY if she does not repent. Ugh.
I feel sorry for her too, and try to remember to pray for her, and although it seems she would suffer eternally without repentance, there could be reasons why she wouldn't, like having some sort of emotional/mental disorder, etc. Actually, the whole lot of them seem disordered (or something).
33 posted on 06/25/2013 8:49:30 PM PDT by mlizzy (If people spent an hour a week in Eucharistic adoration, abortion would be ended. --Mother Teresa)
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To: smoothsailing

Is she still receiving communion? If so, there is a priest and bishop who are complicit.


34 posted on 06/25/2013 8:50:51 PM PDT by spyone (ridiculum)
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To: Taxman

She’s calling the bluff and she’ll never be excommunicated.


35 posted on 06/25/2013 8:52:50 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (....Let It Burn...)
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To: smoothsailing

Jesus didn’t die to save baby-killers, Nancy. Just those of us who accept His father’s word. There’s a warm spot for you.


36 posted on 06/25/2013 8:55:33 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: Taxman

That’s what I’ve been wondering.


37 posted on 06/25/2013 8:55:43 PM PDT by clintonh8r ("Europe was created by history. America was created by a philosophy." Baroness Thatcher)
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To: smoothsailing
In an interview with the liberal web site Think Progress, Pelosi attacked Pavone, calling him hysterical:

"My faith is very deep and has been my whole life. I love my faith and my faith has nothing to do with whoever he is. The arrogance of it all! It’s like something ancient, medieval…The Church taught me as I was growing up that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live up to a moral standard. And I respect women’s judgment and values to do that.

Whether this priest thinks his judgment should be another woman’s judgment is absolutely ridiculous to me. But nonetheless it’s what they say. I grant the Church where they are on abortion. That’s where they are, that’s where they have to be. But my faith isn’t about what their position is. My faith is about, Christ is my savior, the church is his church, and has nothing to do with Priests for Life…I wouldn’t even dignify whatever it is they said. It was a highly emotional statement that they made. If it were more intellectual I might have paid attention to it. He was acting hysterically."

Ping for later

38 posted on 06/25/2013 8:56:06 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: smoothsailing

Well done, Father.


39 posted on 06/25/2013 8:56:38 PM PDT by Gator113 ( ~just keep livin~ I drink good wine, listen to good music and dream good dreams.)
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To: smoothsailing

As if she cared about excommunication in the first place.


40 posted on 06/25/2013 8:58:31 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew
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