You are viewing an archived page on our old website. Click here to visit our new website.

Home | Join/Donate | Current Voices | Liturgical Calendar | What's New | Affirmation | James Hitchcock's Column | Church Documents | Search


Catholics and Political Responsibility

A MEDAL FOR NANCY
(Did the Speaker expect the effect her TV Interview would have?)

 

by James V. Schall, SJ

As I sat at my desk on August 26, one e-mail after another appeared about yet another bishop’s statement on the Nancy Pelosi’s TV Interview in which she explained Catholic doctrine on when human life begins. The leader, as he usually is, was Archbishop Chaput. I had wondered to some friends whether we would hear from the Archbishops of Washington and San Francisco who were the bishops with more immediate jurisdiction. Of course, with the Democratic Convention in Denver, Chaput was dealing with something that was taking place in his back yard.

Then, in rapid succession, Archbishop Wuerl, the US Conference of Bishops, Cardinals Rigali and Egan, and Bishop Lori made their own responses. I am sure we will hear from others. Clearly something momentous was happening. Suddenly, bishops, as they say, were “speaking out.” Every priest in the country will now be implicitly authorized to address this topic. Official Catholic teaching is erroneously stated in the public forum by the highest-ranking elected Catholic politician. The challenge could not be avoided.

But I have a good word for the Speaker. Unintentionally, she did something no one else has been able to do. She provided exactly the right occasion at the right time for bishops to speak in the public order. They could speak in a way that emphasizes their office’s basic obligation to teach and rule within the context of liberty of speech and accuracy of truth. This is why I think she should receive a medal.

How so? In the Interview, Mrs. Pelosi maintained that a) she was a devout Catholic, b) she had studied the issue of life’s beginnings, and c) she concluded, apparently citing earlier Church authorities, that the Church had no firm position on the matter. If the wildest pro-life advocate had asked her to do something better for the pro-life movement, I do not know what it would have been.

In responding, the bishops spoke to an ecclesiastical matter, namely, what is it that the Church in fact teaches. Secondly, they corrected a Catholic politician obviously confused and incorrect about the matter. Finally, they stated that science was in agreement with the Catholic position. On this issue, they were not making a statement of faith alone. That is, Catholics also speak to reason.

Now, Mrs. Pelosi, for political reasons, wants most forms of abortion to be legal. She has to find a reason that does not contradict her own professed faith. She no longer can claim the grounds on which she has been standing. She can acknowledge that she was wrong. Or she can claim other reasons to justify her view.

But what she has done, and for this we are grateful, is to give the bishops a much needed opportunity, this time in the public form, to make clear what the Church teaches. If one wants to reject this position, give reasons for it. The ones given don’t work.

How was it possible for someone like the Speaker to spend all those years as a Catholic in public life and not know the facts of what the Church teaches? No doubt she consulted advisors as confused as she was, as the nature of her response indicates.

Up to this time her views were not directly responded to by bishops. We must be grateful to her for giving them this really remarkable opportunity to state clearly when human life begins, namely, at conception. What is killed in early abortions, in late term ones, in abandoning infants just born, in euthanasia later on, is the same thing: a human being from his conception.

 

James V. Schall, S. J.
Georgetown University, DC
September 9, 2008


Vatican Statements Canon Law - Dccuments - Cardinal Ratzinger's memorandum

US Bishops' Conference Statements

Diocesan Bishops' Statements

Selected articles, commentary


**Women for Faith & Family operates solely on your generous donations!

WFF is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible.


Voices copyright © 1999-Present Women for Faith & Family. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION GUIDELINES

All material on this web site is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without prior written permission from Women for Faith & Family,except as specified below.

Personal use
Permission is granted to download and/or print out articles for personal use only.

Quotations
Brief quotations (ca 500 words) may be made from the material on this site, in accordance with the “fair use” provisions of copyright law, without prior permission. For these quotations proper attribution must be made of author and WFF + URL (i.e., “Women for Faith & Family – www.wf-f.org.)

Attribution
Generally, all signed articles or graphics must also have the permission of the author. If a text does not have an author byline, Women for Faith & Family should be listed as the author. For example: Women for Faith & Family (St Louis: Women for Faith & Family, 2005 + URL)

Link to Women for Faith & Family web site.
Other web sites are welcome to establish links to www.wf-f.org or to individual pages within our site.


Back to top -- Home -- Back to Catholics & Political Responsibility

Women for Faith & Family
PO Box 300411
St. Louis, MO 63130

314-863-8385 Phone -- 314-863-5858 Fax -- Email

You are viewing an archived page on our old website. Click here to visit our new website.