San Fran Nan Gets Taken to the Woodshed: Speaker Pelosi’s Bishop Corrects Her Once Again

Deacon Keith Fournier writes at Catholic Online:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - One of the great scandals of our age is the leadership of some of our fellow Catholics in public life who are unfaithful to the teaching of our Church and betray their public trust. Sadly, they demonstrate the danger warned of in the last great ecumenical council of our Church, Vatican II.

The Council Fathers in their document on the Christian mission - Lumen Gentium, “Light to the Nations - used a phrase which has been repeated many times since then in numerous teachings from the contemporary Popes and is a favorite of our own U.S. Bishops. They warned of the “separation between faith and life.” They called it one of the “greatest errors of our age”. And, so it truly is... advanced with the help of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some other Catholics in public life.

[...]

Nancy Pelosi has been corrected so many times by her Bishop it is beginning to irritate many. Yet, she persists in a flagrant disregard for the teaching of the Church she professes to be a member of. She also evidences an intention to mislead her fellow Catholics about the unquestionably clear teaching of that Church. Faithful Catholics profess that this teaching concerning the responsibilities of of human freedom, such as not killing one another, is not simply a matter for only Catholics but constitute an absolute obligation for any just society.

The social ordering principles contained within Catholic Social teaching of the Church are not simply “private” religious matters. They are profoundly public. They outline the parameters of civilized behaviour. They help to explain what is good about the experiment in ordered liberty called the United States of America. The subterfuge of the Speaker of the House of Representatives concerning the Foundational and Fundamental first right, the Right to Life, and the first freedom, the freedom to be born, is dangerous to the future of our Republic.

It strikes at the core of what constitutes human freedom. It is a refutation of the truth concerning solidarity - our responsibilities to one another as neighbors. It denies the very existence of a “Natural Law” which can be known by all men and women through the exercise of reason and which is the foundation of Civil Law itself. Yet, she persistsin her deceit. She has the arrogance to pretend that in so doing she is acting as a faithful Catholic. This was recently shown in her shameful interview with Eleanor Clift in Newsweek magazine. (Dec. 21, 2009)

Archbishop George H. Niederauer in a well written piece entitled “Free Will, Conscience and Moral Choice: What Catholics believe” has once again corrected the Speaker, a member of his flock. I believe that he did so out of pastoral concern and Christian love. We publish his entire column below as our first related story. His article is a lesson in Morality. We ask all of our readers to please read it carefully. Then go to the Sacred Scriptures and to the Catholic Catechism. There you find the truth concerning what constitutes the real Catholic Christian faith. Not the errors and the false public witness of the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Do not let Speaker Nancy Pelosi or any unfaithful Catholics in public life continue to confuse you. Yes, continue to pray for the Speaker but resist her lies and oppose their evil effects. Do not be intimidated, Set Freedom free. Defend the truth against those who lie about the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church. That includes some Catholics in public life. This proper correction by the Bishop of the Speaker is another Call to a new Catholic Action!

Archbishop Niederauer's correction of Speaker Pelosi can be read in full here: "Archbishop Corrects Nancy Pelosi: Free Will, Conscience and Moral Choice".

An excerpt:

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.

[...]

However, human freedom does not legitimate bad moral choices, nor does it justify a stance that all moral choices are good if they are free: “The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything.” (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1740) Christian belief in human freedom recognizes that we are called but not compelled by God to choose constantly the values of the Gospel—faith, hope, love, mercy, justice, forgiveness, integrity and compassion.

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.

[...]

While we deeply respect the freedom of our fellow citizens, we nevertheless are profoundly convinced that free will cannot be cited as justification for society to allow moral choices that strike at the most fundamental rights of others.

Such a choice is abortion, which constitutes the taking of innocent human life, and cannot be justified by any Catholic notion of freedom...

[Read the whole thing]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Boston-Area Priest: Pastoral/Teaching Approach Has Failed Miserably in Persuading "Pro-Choice" Catholics of Their Error

Pelosi Accused of Muzzling Opposition to Taxpayer-Funded D.C. Abortions

Wuerl: Why I Won't Deny Pelosi Communion

Pope to Speaker Pelosi: Reject Abortion Support [UPDATED]

"Conservative Catholic Grandmother"™ Pelosi Backs Down: Contraception Removed from "Stimulus Package"

"Conservative Catholic Grandmother"™ Pelosi Says Birth Control a Boon for the Economy [UPDATED]

More U.S. Bishops Issue Statements on Abortion

LA Times Columnist Lies to Cover for Pelosi

Obama Camp to Speaker Pelosi: "Shut Up, Already!"

The Follow-Up Question Brokaw Should've Asked

Pelosi: St. Augustine Agrees With Me - That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It [UPDATED]

Archbishop Chaput on Speaker Pelosi: "On the Separation of Sense and State" [UPDATED]

Biblical Scholars Challenge Pelosi's "Scripture" Quote

Pro-Abort Catholic Politicians to Receive Communion at Papal Mass [UPDATED]

"Conservative Catholic Grandmother" Pelosi Defends Removal of "God" from Flag Certificates

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