Aug
25
Pelosi – once again opening mouth and removing all doubt (Updated)
August 25, 2008 | 3 Comments
When the Democrats won back control of Congress after the 2006 mid-term elections, one of my uber-left, feministe friends sent out a celebratory email crowing about the victory and Pelosi becoming the most powerful woman in American political history (in terms of official capacity, that is). She also fretted that we Rethuglicans would use the fact that Pelosi was a woman to justify portraying her as dumb and incompetent.
What my friend failed to appreciate is that we really don’t need to use Pelosi’s sex in order to note that she is not exactly the sharpest mind around. She routinely provides evidence of her lack of intellectual faculties, and her appearance on Meet the Press yesterday was just the latest example.
MR. BROKAW: Senator Obama saying the question of when life begins is above his pay grade, whether you’re looking at it scientifically or theologically. If he were to come to you and say, “Help me out here, Madame Speaker. When does life begin?” what would you tell him?
REP. PELOSI: 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. And Senator–St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know. The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose. Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child–first trimester, certain considerations; second trimester; not so third trimester. There’s very clear distinctions. This isn’t about abortion on demand, it’s about a careful, careful consideration of all factors and–to–that a woman has to make with her doctor and her god. And so I don’t think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins. As I say, the Catholic Church for centuries has been discussing this, and there are those who’ve decided…
MR. BROKAW: The Catholic Church at the moment feels very strongly that it…
REP. PELOSI: I understand that.
MR. BROKAW: …begins at the point of conception.
REP. PELOSI: I understand. And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy. But it is, it is also true that God has given us, each of us, a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And we want abortions to be safe, rare, and reduce the number of abortions. That’s why we have this fight in Congress over contraception. My Republican colleagues do not support contraception. If you want to reduce the number of abortions, and we all do, we must–it would behoove you to support family planning and, and contraception, you would think. But that is not the case. So we have to take–you know, we have to handle this as respectfully–this is sacred ground. We have to handle it very respectfully and not politicize it, as it has been–and I’m not saying Rick Warren did, because I don’t think he did, but others will try to.
Thomas Peters has already provided a line-by-line fisk of this garbage. And a blogger at Catholidoxy shines a light on Pelosi’s ignorance of both history and theology. I’ll just direct your attention over there as it’s too thorough to simply copy and paste select links. In short, Pelosi – deliberately, in all liklihood – conflates two distinct questions: when does life begin and when does a baby receive a soul? It is true that there are still some lingering uncertainties on the latter question, but the Church – contrary to Madame Pelosi’s “50 years or something” retort – has been clear on the question of when life begins for, oh, 2,000 years. Pelosi might want to familiarize herself with the Didache, written in the first century, for a clear condemnation of abortion. Sorry, Nancy, this whole anti-abortion plank wasn’t invented by Pope Paul. Over at Catholidoxy there are even more ancient writers quoted that show that this isn’t exactly a recent stance that the Church has taken.
I would also echo Amy’s take that this presents a teaching moment for Church leadership. It is disturbing that a high-profile Catholic appears on television and completely misrepresents her Church’s teachings. Somebody from the USCCB must publicly refute this nonsense.
I won’t hold my breath.
Update: Archbishop Chaput can always be counted on to be one of the few US Bishops to have the courage to speak up. Jay Anderson has the details.
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3 Comments so far
It kills me that the Bishops will say nothing about this.
I don’t care that she happens to be a Democrat – anyone speaking something so patently false about the teaching of the Catholic Church should be publicly corrected to prevent scandal and the multiplication of this evil ignorance.
I still don’t understand how granny Roctus McBotox can evenutter the words, “As a faithful, practicing Catholic,” without bursting into brimstone-fueled flames.
[...] respect for life. Fellow Political Bear blogger The Cranky Conservative has an excellent articleon Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s view on [...]