“Help me out here, Madam Speaker” ( “I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins” )

California Catholic Daily ^ | August 25, 2008 | staff

[kellynla]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, described herself yesterday morning on NBC’s Meet the Press as “an ardent, practicing Catholic,” then told moderator Tom Brokaw and an audience of millions that Church teaching on when human life begins is unclear.

Besides, said Pelosi, even if life does begin at conception, that would not change her pro-abortion views. “The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose,” she said. “Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child -- first trimester, certain considerations; second trimester; not so third trimester. There's very clear distinctions. This isn't about abortion on demand, it's about a careful, careful consideration of all factors and – to -- that a woman has to make with her doctor and her god.”

Brokaw was quizzing the Speaker on Sen. Barack Obama’s response last week to Pastor Rick Warren’s straightforward question at the Saddleback Forum, “At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?”

Asked Brokaw, “Senator Obama saying the question of when life begins is above his pay grade, whether you're looking at it scientifically or theologically. If he were to come to you and say, ‘Help me out here, Madam Speaker. When does life begin?’ what would you tell him?”

Here is Pelosi’s response: “I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And Senator -- St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know... And so I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins.

[ryan71]

“Besides, said Pelosi, even if life does begin at conception, that would not change her pro-abortion views. “The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose,” she said.”

Using that logic it’s okay for a woman to choose to drownd her 5 kids in a bath tub.

[al_c]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, described herself yesterday morning on NBC’s Meet the Press as “an ardent, practicing Catholic,” then told moderator Tom Brokaw and an audience of millions that Church teaching on when human life begins is unclear.

Pardon me but ... WTF???!!!!! I'm so sick of the media letting these CINOs tell the world about the Catholic Church. They are wrong and they know it. They just tell themselves these things to satisfy their own consciences.

[Salvation]

**“Catholic” pro-choice politicians who speak and vote pro-abortion are not automatically excommunicated. **

They are.

Please read the post above

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2067572/posts?page=11#11

[MrB]

Your thought processes have to be as messed up as a pile of hangers to justify liberal positions on anything.

[trublu]

Just once I’d like to hear an interviewer take to task someone who claims the believe abortion is wrong, but defends other people’s right to choose. If you BELIEVE that abortion is the killing of an innocent life — if you truly believe that — how can you allow others to take that life?

[Islander7]

“....Pelosi is, and always has been, an ardent, practicing IDIOT...”

Practice makes perfect!

[Shery]

Obviously, our dear ‘speaker’ has never read the Bible...or if she has...she doesn’t give much credence to what it says. It makes no bones about when life begins.

[T. Rustin Noone]

I read in a recent Peggy Noonan column that “anyone who has ever bought a condom knows exactly when life begins”. I think that message should be drilled into any speaker who suggests that the question of when human life and rights begin is beyond their “pay grade”.

Speaking of which, the suggestion of being incapable of answering the question seems to be one of comprehension, not compensation. Just a thought.

[KingSnorky]

Peggy Noonan made an interesting observation in her WSJ column: “You know why they call it birth control? Because it’s meant to stop a birth from happening nine months later. We know when life begins. Everyone who ever bought a pack of condoms knows when life begins.”

[MrB]

Human beings:

Evolved apes,
or the crowning glory of God’s creation, housing an eternal soul created in God’s image?

[PGR88]

Given that answer, it is doubtful that Pelosi’s human life has yet begun.

[purpleraine]

I miss the old days. Wasn’t the discussion whether or not life begins at birth or earlier. When did people come up with the life didn’t begin at birth argument?

[Free State Four]

I liked the argument Peggy Noonan used. There is a reason they call it birth control.

[LaurenD]

Maybe life begins at age 1. Age 3 maybe? Maybe a woman ought to have the right to choose whether she wants to be a mother or not up until the child is....say..... 7 years old???? I’ve got teen agers, maybe it should be up until 18, as they’re getting really sassy now and I should have the right to choose.

After-all, it’s all about the right to choose /yes.....sarcasm.

[Salvation]

Abortion is a turning point for the election this year -- posts from FR alone!

“Help me out here, Madam Speaker” ( “I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins” )

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Catholics Cannot Vote for Pols Who Support Abortion, Except for Morally Grave Reasons: KY Bishops

[NTHockey]

>>Pelosi is a CINO who has excommunicated herself from the Catholic Church by supporting abortion.

I am really tired of this “excommunicated herself” crap. That is just a cop-out on the part of the Bishops to avoid “offending” anyone. Throw their A$$es out, publicly. Watch how quick the message gets across.

BTW, by her public words, she has committed and persisted in her heresy. She is NOT a Catholic, she is a heretic. I don’t know what she practices, but sure ain’t Catholicism.

[Migraine]

if you see some movement in the brush, is it moral to shoot at it when you don’t know if it’s a person or not?

One of the best rejoinders I've seen. Nice one.

[kellynla]

For those of you who haven’t already seen this:

“Until they have reformed their lives”

No Communion for pro-abortion Catholics, says Archbishop Burke

California Catholic Daily

Rome, Aug 19, 2008 / (CNA) — Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority of the Holy See, said this week that Catholics who publicly support abortion — especially politicians — should not receive Communion, and that ministers of Communion should be responsibly charitable in denying it to them if they ask for it “until they have reformed their lives.”

[[Burke082108.jpg]]In an interview with the magazine Radici Christiane, Archbishop Burke pointed out that there is often a lack of reverence at Mass when receiving Communion. “Receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily is a sacrilege,” he warned. “If it is done deliberately in mortal sin it is a sacrilege.”

To illustrate his point, he referred to “public officials who, with knowledge and consent, uphold actions that are against the Divine and Eternal moral law. For example, if they support abortion, which entails the taking of innocent and defenseless human lives. A person who commits sin in this way should be publicly admonished in such a way as to not receive Communion until he or she has reformed his life,” the archbishop said.
“If a person who has been admonished persists in public mortal sin and attempts to receive Communion, the minister of the Eucharist has the obligation to deny it to him. Why? Above all, for the salvation of that person, preventing him from committing a sacrilege,” he added.

“We must avoid giving people the impression that one can be in a state of mortal sin and receive the Eucharist,” the archbishop continued. “Secondly, there could be another form of scandal, consisting of leading people to think that the public act that this person is doing, which until now everyone believed was a serious sin, is really not that serious — if the Church allows him or her to receive Communion.”

“If we have a public figure who is openly and deliberately upholding abortion rights and receiving the Eucharist, what will the average person think? He or she could come to believe that it up to a certain point it is okay to do away with an innocent life in the mother’s womb,” he warned.

Archbishop Burke also noted that when a bishop or a Church leader prevents an abortion supporter from receiving Communion, “it is not with the intention of interfering in public life but rather in the spiritual state of the politician or public official who, if Catholic, should follow the divine law in the public sphere as well.

“Therefore, it is simply ridiculous and wrong to try to silence a pastor, accusing him of interferi ng in politics so that he cannot do good to the soul of a member of his flock,” he stated.
http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticlePrintable.aspx?id=ae7464ca-97de-4e56-88c8-3004d2adf4ba

[livius]

It is scandalous to the Church AND perhaps leads weak-minded Catholics astray (i.e., if Nancy Pelosi can feel that way, then so can I).

Exactly. Every moment the bishops remain silent makes it worse. They should have said something as soon as the Dems named Biden (a "pro-choice Catholic," sorry, but there ain't no such animal).

My theory is that picking somebody like Biden was a challenge to the Catholic Church. It already appears that the Dems have won that one without even a fight.

[Jvette]

Actually the debate was more over when the soul entered the body, not when life began. There were some that held that this did not happen until the “quickening”, the first movements of the baby.

Science has allowed us to see into the womb and shown us that from the moment of conception, humans have separate and unique DNA.

Funny how all the pro-aborts who are so enamored with the science of global warming and embryonic stem cell research
ignore the clear science of DNA and ultrasound.