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Nancy Pelosi Continues To Scandalize On Abortion
March 13, 2010
Catholic Bishops are starting to say that “something has to be done”
“I talked to the Catholic bishops about this… There is no federal funding of abortion in this bill. …This bill that passed the Senate does not have federal funding of abortion”. Catholic Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi lying, again, about the abortion provisions firmly ensconced in the senate “healthcare reform” bill. Though lying directly to the US Conference Of Catholic Bishops may be taking it up a notch, misleading people over abortion is nothing new for Ms Speaker.
Actually, the only time “practicing Catholic” Pelosi, as she always seem to refer to herself when speaking publicly about abortion, even mentions the Catholic Church, is when she is blatantly distorting the Church’s Catechism on abortion in order to mislead and corrupt others.
In doing so, Nancy Pelosi is committing scandal. Per # 2284 of The Catechism Of The Catholic Church, “Scandal is an attitude or behavior that leads another to do evil. …Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is lead into a grave offense. And # 2271 of the CCC declares, in no uncertain terms, abortion to be a “moral evil” and that “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable”.
As Speaker Of The House, Ms Pelosi’s efforts to scandalize Catholics and other pro-life Christians is considered to be especially grave due to her position of power. ”Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it…” (CCC #2285)
Perpetuating scandal on the faithful
At the height of the 2008 election, with the Catholic Church, and Christians in general, assailing Barack Obama’s record as a pro-abortion zealot and his pledge to pass the FOCA, practicing Catholic Pelosi went on Meet The Press and told Christians across America that the question of when life begins was “an issue of controversy throughout the history of the Church”… and that “The Doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition”. A lie which was quickly refuted by the USCCB and many Catholics in congress.
In the case of the Senate healthcare bill, passed on December 24, all claims that that bill would not provide federal funding for abortion, or do anything to promote the expansion of abortion in America, were refuted by the Conference Of Catholic Bishops and numerous pro-life advocacy groups within 48 hours.
In response to Ms Pelosi’s “I talked to the bishops…” statement of February 26, Richard Doerflinger, speaking on behalf of the USCCB said “We do not know how anyone who has spoken to the bishops could conclude that the Senate health care bill does not fund abortions.”
”First, the Senate’s abortion language limits only the use of tax credits for abortion in qualified health plans, not other funding in the bill”. Second, the Senate’s language on tax credits still allows subsidies for overall health plans that cover elective abortions, against the policy of the Hyde amendment and other longstanding federal laws,”
“The bill requires each American purchasing such a plan to make a separate payment to the insurer every month, solely to pay for other people’s abortions… This is an enormous imposition on the consciences of the millions of Americans who oppose abortion.”
The National Right To Life Committee points out that President Obama’s proposed changes to the senate bill will “increase the funds that would be available to directly subsidize abortion procedures”, at some 1,200 so called Community Health Centers, “and to subsidize private health insurance that covers abortion. …These funds will not flow through the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. Therefore, these funds would not be covered by the Hyde Amendment.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius is empowered by the senate bill with the authority to approve how the billions of dollars directed to “Community Health Centers” can be utilized. Anyone who knows anything about Barack Obama and Ms Sebelius, and their cold hearted commitments to unrestricted abortion on demand, understands the implications here.
So much for what practicing Catholic Nancy told the bishops.
As an American citizen, Ms Pelosi is entitled to advocate openly for “abortion rights”. Free country. And the bishops, of course, were not misled in the least, by now expecting nothing less (or better) of Pelosi. No one scandalized there. As for lying to the USCCB, and supporting unrestricted abortion on demand in direct opposition to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, Nancy Pelosi’s soul is her own business.
But Nancy Pelosi has no business, whatsoever, using her position as Speaker Of The House to intentionally try to mislead pro-life House democrats, Americans in general, and Catholics in particular, about abortion legislation. That is scandal.
Bishops have been “patient enough”
And it is time for this scandal to stop. Since the November 2008 elections, when 54% of Catholic voters supported ruthless abortion zealot Obama, we have asked the question Where Is The Catholic Church? The US Conference Of Catholic Bishops has been negligent in protecting their flocks from the type of scandal perpetuated by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. To date, the bishops’ refutations of Speaker Pelosi’s misleading statements, or outright lies, have simply contradicted the facts of her statements. Official Church condemnation of Pelosi, personally, for attempting to scandalize the Catholic faithful has yet to be heard.
Hopefully, there are signs that the reluctance of the USCCB to speak out against such scandalizing is coming to an end. Speaking to Newsweek in December, Speaker Pelosi refuted outright the Catholic Church’s authority on matters of abortion, spouting the standard progressive Catholic position. “I am a practicing Catholic(!)… I practically mourn this difference of opinion… we are all endowed with, a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will.”
In response, Bishop Ronald Gainer, of the Diocese of Lexington, KY, announced that he, for one, had had enough.
“To make these public statements is a betrayal of our Catholic faith and discipline.” Bishop Gainer cited Pelosi’s public position on abortion as a “contradiction and our Church is clear on what the teachings are regarding the sanctity of life, on the inviolability of human life. The bishops have an obligation to stand up for the Church’s teaching and when we have such a broad and public consistent denial of our Church’s moral position it would seem to indicate that we’ve been patient enough and something should be done.”
The bishop of Ms Pelosi’s diocese, Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco, concurred. “It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel — racism, infidelity, abortion, theft…, Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it is not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right.”
These public chastisements have clearly made no impression on Speaker Pelosi. Her statement that “There is no federal funding of abortion in this bill” is an easily demonstrable lie, and in saying that “I talked to the bishops” Ms Pelosi is clearly trying to imply to pro-life Catholic legislators and voters that America’s Catholic Bishops support the senate healthcare bill she hopes to force through the House.
As we stated in Is The Catholic Church Finally Taking A Stand?, the members of the USCCB give their lives to do God’s work and bring the souls entrusted to their care to heaven. They live to bring the Sacraments to the Catholic faithful, not to deny them. But all members of the Catholic clergy are duty bound to confront grave sin such as abortion and scandal, and to correct Catholics when they become corrupted by false teachings. Or false messiahs.
And the time has come when, as Bishop Gainer said, the USCCB has been “patient enough” with practicing Catholic Nancy Pelosi, and “something should be done”. For the sake of the Catholic faithful, the bishops need to take a stand here and issue a public statement prohibiting Nancy Pelosi from approaching the Communion Rail.
Catholics have prayed fervently for the redemption and repentance of all pro-abortion Catholic legislators and jurists. And we will continue to do so. In return, Speaker Of The House, “practicing Catholic” Nancy Pelosi has done her best to mislead her Catholic sisters and brothers on what the Catholic Church expects of them in regards to the “intrinsic evil” of abortion.
Nancy Pelosi’s soul is, as we said, her own business. She is perfectly free to disregard the admonitions of her bishop, and even the Pope. But as a “practicing Catholic”, Ms Pelosi might do well to reacquaint herself with the words of her Lord.
“Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to him by whom they come” Luke 17.1
Category: "Obamacare, Politics Of Abortion, The Catholic Church And Abortion
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