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Why the Next House Minority Leader Will Be a Pro-abortion Catholic
Catholic News Agency ^ | November 25, 2016 | N/A

Posted on 11/26/2016 2:34:59 AM PST by BlessedBeGod

.- When the Democratic Party makes its decisions about leadership at the end of the month, the House Minority Leader will be a self-proclaimed “pro-choice Catholic.”

Both current House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, and her challenger, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), profess to be Catholic but also support legalized abortion.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1987. She has consistently advocated in favor of legal abortion, and has earned high ratings from pro-abortion groups including Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL.

Ryan represents a district in Northeast Ohio and has served in Congress since 2003. He was once a member of the advisory board for Democrats for Life and received an 80 percent rating from National Right to Life in 2006.

Early last year, however, he announced that he had shifted his views in favor of legal abortion, quoting the Gospel of Matthew to do so.

But this position is not only morally problematic from a Catholic standpoint, but also logically incoherent, one theologian told CNA.
 
“If we were to outlaw abortion, we’re not claiming to stand in judgment over anyone’s soul any more than we do when we outlaw murder and stealing and fraud,” said Dr. Donald Asci, a professor of theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Asci spoke with CNA last year, after Rep. Ryan announced in a January 2015 op-ed published in the Akron Beacon Journal that he now favors legal abortion. The congressman insisted that the issue of abortion is complex and personal, and the government should not interfere in it.

“My faith is important to me, and like many Catholics I strive to adhere to its principles, especially one of the essential and highest teachings of 'judge not, lest ye be judged',” he wrote.

Pregnancy is a “complex” issue, he said, adding that “some couples are unprepared to become parents” and that “some families who are looking forward to a child may experience complications during the pregnancy.”

Abortion should be “a personal decision” because of these complexities, he said, concluding that “the heavy hand of government must not make this decision for women and families.”

Catholic teaching holds that abortion is gravely contrary to moral law. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation.”

Asci said that Ryan’s argument is morally flawed and unsound, in part because it falsely equates making laws for the common good with judging a woman’s soul.

“It’s part of our Christian and Catholic fraternal charity not to stand in judgment over the soul of another,” Asci stated, adding that “making laws to protect individuals or to promote the common good of the community” is not the same as judging someone else’s soul.

“What we ought to all be looking for is greater respect for life, in all its examples whether it’s unborn children, whether it’s mothers in danger, whether it’s the elderly,” he said.

Pregnancy is a “complex” issue, Asci acknowledged, but rather than justifying abortion, this reality that means a woman in need should receive support from her community.

“The pro-life position would be that all abortion should be removed from the discussion as an option in these stressful situations,” he stated. “The sanctity of the life is what should be made very clear to all involved. And then you go forward in doing the best you can with whatever the particulars of the situation are.”

Ryan’s reversal on the issue was no surprise to Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America. In a February 2015 op-ed for The Hill, she explained why the organization quietly removed Ryan from its advisory board in 2009.

“When Ryan voted in favor of taxpayer funding of abortion, we removed him,” she wrote.

“His record by then, quite frankly, was calling to question DFLA’s integrity. His idealism had withered. He had begun his Congressional career with a nearly perfect pro-life voting record but by 2009 that had deteriorated.”

Ryan also advocated for government expansion for contraception in his op-ed, saying that government has a duty to reduce abortions through expanding access to contraception and “age-appropriate sex education.”

Dr. Asci said that too undermines respect for life.

“[Ryan] says 'I wish that all children could come into a situation where they’re wanted, and somehow intended'. Well the only way to achieve that is to increase our value that we have for human life itself,” Asci stated.

“And contraception erodes that in theory and in practice. It erodes the value that we see in life, and is only going to lead to the propensity to the abortions themselves.”



TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: 114th; cino; proaborts; religiousleft; timryan
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1 posted on 11/26/2016 2:34:59 AM PST by BlessedBeGod
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To: BlessedBeGod

I am a low church protestant but it appears to me that pro-abortion Catholic is sort of like a beef eating vegetarian.


2 posted on 11/26/2016 2:42:37 AM PST by Fai Mao (PIAPS for Prison 2016)
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To: BlessedBeGod

Timmy is a thug and CINO.


3 posted on 11/26/2016 2:46:08 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Je Suis Pepe)
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To: Fai Mao

Abortion on demand is but a sacrament of a different church, that of Moloch, the ritual sacrifice of children. There is historical reference to that pagan sect, but curiously, it seems to have largely died out in succeeding centuries.

Birth rate could not keep up with the demand for more and more sacrifices. Eventually there are no more children to sacrifice, and the next generation has - disappeared. Only the aged and those quickly passing beyond the reproductive years remain, finally dying alone.

The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, did not engage in child sacrifice, but rather, their celibacy (ZERO birth rate) combined with external and internal societal changes resulted in the thinning of the Shaker community, and consequently many of the Shaker settlements are now village museums.

There is a reason why societies are admonished to honor and celebrate the birth of children. Human beings have a finite and relatively short lifetime.


4 posted on 11/26/2016 3:04:38 AM PST by alloysteel (Je suis deplorable.)
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To: BlessedBeGod
What happened to Ellison...I thought he was a shoe in for the dims leader

I guess Trump will certify him as a "terrorist organization" along the CAIR and the mooslim brotherhood.

5 posted on 11/26/2016 3:12:01 AM PST by spokeshave (In the Thatch Weave,..Trump's Wing Man is Truth.)
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To: BlessedBeGod

To answer the question of the title, it is because the Catholic church speaks publicly against that which causes financial harm to themselves. They will not publicly speak against Democrat demons...they’re bringing in billions of dollars from the US Treasury for resettlement. One hand washes the other. It is no coincidence Francis spoke at the Border and not San Francisco.


6 posted on 11/26/2016 3:13:15 AM PST by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51. Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: BlessedBeGod
How do you get around supporting this in confession or at judgement?


7 posted on 11/26/2016 3:17:32 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the differen)
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To: Caipirabob

Supporting it?
How about expressing gratitude for its deliciousness
It’s like “Hey God.. good one!”


8 posted on 11/26/2016 3:19:51 AM PST by Mr. K
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To: BlessedBeGod

Because ALL Democrats are EVIL by supporting Mothers KILLING their own BABIES!!


9 posted on 11/26/2016 3:30:28 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Ann Archy

Hear, hear!


10 posted on 11/26/2016 3:51:59 AM PST by jacknhoo (Luke 12:51. Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.)
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To: BlessedBeGod

Eh, sorry, Catholic News Agency, tgere is no such thin as s pro abortion Catholic. That’s what logical people call an oxymoron


11 posted on 11/26/2016 3:58:44 AM PST by stanne
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To: spokeshave
"What happened to Ellison...I thought he was a shoe in for the dims leader"

He is running for the head of the DNC.

12 posted on 11/26/2016 4:03:57 AM PST by Truth29
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To: BlessedBeGod

The next House Minority Leader will be pro-abortion because democrats are evil. That person will not actually be Catholic, obviously, but will claim to be Catholic because democrats are liars.


13 posted on 11/26/2016 4:14:05 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: BlessedBeGod

I might say ‘there is no such thing as a pro abortion Catholic’.......but the Pope might disagre. He being the apostate leader of the worlds Catholics somehow.


14 posted on 11/26/2016 4:31:05 AM PST by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: BlessedBeGod

There is no such thing as a “pro-abortion” Catholic, any more than there is a a “pro-adultery” Catholic.

It’s a contradiction in terms.


15 posted on 11/26/2016 4:39:23 AM PST by Westbrook (Children do not divide your love, they multiply it)
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To: BlessedBeGod

The Democrats have made it clear that in rejecting God, three times, they now embrace the seven deadly sins as *sacraments*.

So when you look at such people, know that above all they honor death and oblivion. But then question of them in particular, what is their favorite deadly sin, the one that most defines them, though most partake of several.

Pride (Vanity, the greatest of sins, the sin of Lucifer)

Lust (and Perversion)

Gluttony (Gorging yourself while those around you starve)

Sloth (Compelling or coercing others to do your work)

Greed (Grasping at wealth while impoverishing others)

Wrath (Hatred of other different from yourself)

Envy (To destroy and defile that which others cherish)


16 posted on 11/26/2016 5:46:09 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Friday, January 20, 2017. Reparations end.)
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To: Mr. K
Well, yes, hamburger itself is a blessing. :)

But it was a less horrific reference to something I wouldn't actually post a photo of.

17 posted on 11/26/2016 6:07:03 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the differen)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

The current house minority leader is a pro abortion catholic so why wouldn’t the next one?


18 posted on 11/26/2016 6:16:33 AM PST by Phlap (REDNECK@LIBARTS.EDU)
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To: BlessedBeGod

Anyone in the democrat-islamist party who is not pro-abortion?


19 posted on 11/26/2016 6:32:43 AM PST by onedoug
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To: BlessedBeGod

I’m beginning not to like anyone named Ryan.


20 posted on 11/26/2016 6:57:11 AM PST by bgill (From the CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola")
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