Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, often describes herself as a faithful and devout Catholic.
She was baptized and reared as a Catholic and attended Catholic schools her entire life. We might assume that at some juncture she must have learned about the consistent Catholic teaching on the sanctity of all human life.
Apparently not. Last week, during a Meet the Press interview on abortion and other public policy issues, she displayed her total lack of comprehension of Catholic teaching. When asked when life begins she said: “I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.”
Her comments were immediately condemned as erroneous as well as outrageous by a number of U.S. bishops, and quickly corrected by Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Doctrine. In their correction of Madame Speaker's attempt at theology, they cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church which states: “Since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”
As speaker of the U.S. House, Nancy Pelosi should address matters of public policy. As for the (mis)interpretation of the Catholic faith, she should refrain. Such interpretation is rightfully the role of Catholic bishops who serve as successors of the apostles and teachers of the faith.
As if her first failed attempt at being a theologian wasn’t embarrassing enough, Pelosi quickly issued a press release in response to the bishops’ statements, suggesting that as a Catholic mother and grandmother she informed her opinion on abortion on the writings of St. Augustine. Responding to this ridiculous ruse of a defense, Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. clarified once again what Nancy Pelosi either doesn’t understand or adamantly refuses to accept. He stated: “As the Catechism and early Church documents make clear, abortion is always an evil. That is an unchanging teaching. The question on when the soul enters the body was a philosophical question that grew out of a lack of scientific data at the time of St. Augustine. We have the data today which shows the embryo is human. There no longer is any discussion of whether the unborn is human and so the philosophical discussion of St. Augustine's time is not relevant today.”
Madame Speaker's comments on Meet the Press and her subsequent defense of those erroneous comments are not only terribly ill-informed and completely incorrect, but truly a shameful display by a so-called “Catholic” political leader. She owes an apology to every Catholic who does understand when life begins and respects the sanctity of the human life of an unborn child.
When asked the same question about when human life begins, the Democratic nominee for President, Senator Barack Obama, avoided the issue by suggesting it was “above his pay grade” to answer. Clearly, being an informed and ardent Catholic is above Nancy Pelosi’s “pay grade” as well.
