Nancy Pelosi: Lousy Catholic, Lousy Congresswoman
Posted On: February 10th, 2010 by carlThe Archbishop of San Francisco takes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to task, and says that as a member of the Catholic Faith, she should start practicing what the church preaches.
I’m not a practicing Catholic, (although I am far from being an atheist) and I have to admit that what Archbishop Niederauer says are tenets anyone would do well to follow.
Ms. Pelosi however, like most liberals, doesn’t let the rules of her religion influence her actions.
After all, there are times when she’s right, and God is wrong.
Such as the issue of abortion.
In a recent interview with Eleanor Clift in Newsweek magazine (Dec. 21, 2009), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about her disagreements with the United States Catholic bishops concerning Church teaching. Speaker Pelosi replied, in part: “I practically mourn this difference of opinion because I feel what I was raised to believe is consistent with what I profess, and that we are all endowed with a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have the opportunity to exercise their free will.”
Embodied in that statement are some fundamental misconceptions about Catholic teaching on human freedom. These misconceptions are widespread both within the Catholic community and beyond. For this reason I believe it is important for me as Archbishop of San Francisco to make clear what the Catholic Church teaches about free will, conscience, and moral choice.
Catholic teaching on free will recognizes that God has given men and women the capacity to choose good or evil in their lives. The bishops at the Second Vatican Council declared that the human person, endowed with freedom, is “an outstanding manifestation of the divine image.” (Gaudium et Spes, No. 17) As the parable of the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov, makes so beautifully clear, God did not want humanity to be mere automatons, but to have the dignity of freedom, even recognizing that with that freedom comes the cost of many evil choices.
