Abp. Cordileone responds to Nancy Pelosi on Abortion: “No Catholic Can Dissent in Good Conscience”

 

cordileoneAt a recent press conference, when being asked about the proposed legislation that would outlaw most abortions after 20 weeks (aka the “Pain-Capable Unborn Children Protection Act”), Nancy Pelosi, a self-avowed “devout” Catholic,  surprised no one when she reaffirmed her wholesale rejection of the Catholic Church’s teaching on abortion.

Pelosi was asked twice whether a 20-week old fetus was a human being, and twice she refused to acknowledge a simple biological fact.  Instead, she chanted the tired mantras of the abortion-is-sacred cult:

“The fact is is what we have said: The life and the health of the mother is what is preeminent in when a decision is made about a woman’s reproductive health.  It isn’t an ideological fight, it is a personal health issue…[T]his is up to women, their conscience, their God, their doctor, their fate, their survival.  And that is what the decision should be. Decisions about women’s reproductive health should not be made by politicians in Washington, D.C., but should honor the decisions that have been made by the Supreme Court, a decision made by the Supreme Court, recognizing the right of women to have that choice.”

Hmm…yeah, we heard that lie the first billion times you said it.  But is it a human being?  Can we get an answer?

Well, not from her it seems.  But luckily for Nancy Pelosi and the rest of us, her own bishop is willing to answer the question that she found so confusing.  Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco, when asked about Pelosi’s remarks, didn’t hesitate to call it like it is (my emphasis):

“It is a scientific fact that human life begins at conception.  This has been established in medical science for over 100 years. Catholic moral teaching acknowledges this scientific fact, and has always affirmed the grave moral evil of taking an innocent human life.

“This has been the consistent teaching of the Church from the very beginning, a teaching already discernible in the natural moral law, and so a teaching from which no Catholic can dissent in good conscience.”

“It is the obligation of pastors of souls to reach out to their people who have difficulty understanding and accepting such important teachings of the Church in order to extend to them true pastoral care and, where appropriate, to establish a regular dialogue.  This is something I have always striven to do in the various ministries I have exercised as a priest and bishop, including now as the Archbishop of San Francisco. I ask for people’s prayers for success as I continue to strive to do this.”

Pray for Archbishop Cordileone and his brother bishops.

And pray for Nancy Pelosi.

 

 

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