More on the issue

Update: Typographical errors corrected.

The Most Reverend Michael Saltarelli, Bishop of Wilmington, will not permit Senator Joseph Biden - even elected as Vice President of the United States of America - to speak in Catholic schools in his Diocese. The Diocese of Wilmington is Senator Biden's home Diocese.

Back in 2004, His Excellency wrote, "Our Catholic institutions will not honor Catholic politicians who take pro-abortion legislative positions or invite them to speak at our functions or schools." He has not changed his mind and does not intend to do so.

You will remember Bishop Saltarelli for giving us the Litany of Saint Thomas More, which we might well begin praying for our Catholic politicians.

The Most Reverend W. Francis Malooly will become the Bishop of Wilmington on 8 September 2008. I doubt he would change this stance.

The Most Reverend George Niederauer, Archbishop of San Francisco, will address Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's comments made on Meet the Press August 24th in his column in Catholic San Francisco on September 5th. The delay seems to me quite unnecessary and even inoportune, but His Excellency will, at least, address the Speaker's remarks. The Archdiocese has posted the statement of the USCCB on its homepage.

As I watch these developments, I cannot help but wonder if we aren't witnessing a rebirth of Catholic life and culture. I certainly hope we are.

Pelosi's spokesman responds

Fr. Zuhlsdorf, at What Does the Prayer Really Say?, noticed at Amy's Charlotte was Both that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's spokesman has issued a statement regarding her recent comments made on Meet the Press with Tom Brokaw.

The statement reads:

The Speaker is the mother of five children and seven grandchildren and fully appreciates the sanctity of family. She was raised in a devout Catholic family who often disagreed with her pro-choice views.

After she was elected to Congress, and the choice issue became more public as she would have to vote on it, she studied the matter more closely. Her views on when life begins were informed by the views of Saint Augustine, who said: "…the law does not provide that the act [abortion] pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation…" (Saint Augustine, On Exodus 21.22)

While Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not ascribe to that view. The Speaker agrees with the Church that we should reduce the number of abortions. She believes that can be done by making family planning more available, as well as by increasing the number of comprehensive age-appropriate sex education and caring adoption programs.

The Speaker has a long, proud record of working with the Catholic Church on many issues, including alleviating poverty and promoting social justice and peace.

Let's use a little logic here, shall we?

First, we cannot possibly suggest that someone "fully appreciates the sanctity of family life" when one knowingly allows the killing of innocent children, which are part of that sacred familial life.

Second, were we to use the Doctor of Grace's explanation, given what we now know about the pain a fetus experiences I daresay Saint Augustine would vehemently disagree with Speaker Pelosi's use of his writings. At the same time, even if we do not call abortion "homicide," it is still evil; there is nothing in Augustine's words that even weakly imply the contrary.

Third, just because some Catholics disagree with the Church's teaching does not make the teaching of the Church wrong. As then Cardinal Ratzinger famously said, "Truth is not decided by a majority vote." As Supreme Pontiff, he recently phrased it thus: "What was true yesterday is true also today."

Fourth, Speaker Pelosi might well consider that there can be no greater way to promote social justice and peace than by defending the unborn child. There can be no true justice in a land where abortion remains legal for it denies the most basic, inherent right of every human being: life.

Fr. Z. offers his own comments and even offers Speaker Pelosi Saint Augustine's own understanding of abortion, since she claims to follow his thinking though she does not seem to grasp it.

Naturally, Thomas, the American Papist, has his own excellent comments on the statement.

Card. Egan responds to Pelosi

One of our anonymous readers kindly alerted me Edward Cardinal Egan's response to the recent statements of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the teachings of the Catholic Church on abortion.

His Emminence was "shocked" to learn of Pelosi's words and said they were "misinformed" and "utterly incredible."

Cardinal Egan further said:

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

The Spirit breathes afresh

I must say that I am delighted - surprised, but delighted -at the overwhelming response to Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi's outrageous false claims about the stance of the Catholic Church toward abortion over the years.

If you are yet unaware of what she said in a interview with Tom Brokaw on NBC's Meet the Press, you must be living under a larger rock than I.

As if in answer to Amy Welborn's impassioned plea to use her words as a teaching moment, the Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., Archbishop of Denver, and the Most Reverend James D. Conley, Auxiliary Bishop of Denver, responded to Speaker Pelosi.

The Most Rev. Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C. responded to her comments.

Ten Catholic legislators have responded to her words, distancing themselves from her.

And what is more - and, sadly, the most surprising of all - the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops itself has responded! (I daresay this would never have happened without the publication of the excellent article on canon 915 by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, the recently appointed Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura.)

In what, so far as I can recall, is a first, Justin Cardinal Regali, Chairman of the Committee on Pro-life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, Chairman of the Committee on Doctrine and Pastoral Practices, issued a joint statement corrected Pelosi's blatantly false depiction of the teachings of the Church's teachings.

Thomas Peters, the American Papist, who, as always, is well on top of these matters, summarizes well Speaker Pelosi's current situation:

Where does that leave her? In the position of having lied either about the actual position of the Church, or about her claim that her position is a legitimate one within the teachings of the Catholic church.

This should get most interesting indeed.