Posted on 12/12/2004 4:57:25 AM PST by livius
New NARAL President May Have Falsified Battle With Catholic Church
by Steven Ertelt
December 3, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New NARAL president Nancy Keenan is finding herself in hot water for possibly exaggerating claims that she "stood up" to pressure from the Catholic Church in Montana after she spoke publicly at a pro-abortion rally fifteen years ago.
Last month, NARAL selected former Montana elected official Nancy Keenan as its new president to replace outgoing leader Kate Michelman.
In comments to the Washington Post after her selection, Keenan said she found herself rebuked by a Catholic bishop after speaking at a rally backing abortion and there was talk of her being excommunicated from the church.
"It was a very personal experience for me having been born and raised Catholic," she told the Post. "It was very, very big."
A biography about Keenan issued by NARAL said she "also showed the force of her pro-choice commitment and the strength of her personal leadership when she stood up to a public effort to excommunicate her from the Catholic Church."
However, a spokesman for the Catholic diocese of Helena, Montana says Keenan is misstating what happened.
Eric Schiedermayer told the Cybercast News Service that the fact that Keenan spoke at a pro-abortion rally in November 1989, while serving as a member of the Montana state legislature, is not in dispute.
What happened afterwards is where the differences begin.
Schiedermayer told CNS News that the Catholic Church merely tried to "help [Keenan] understand" its opposition to her pro-abortion views as a Catholic layperson.
According to Schiedermayer, then-Bishop Elden Curtiss offered to meet with Keenan to discuss the issue of abortion and Keenan accepted the invitation later that month, CNS News reported.
In an article in the November 1989 issue of the Montana Catholic newspaper, the official diocesan publication, Keenan said she agreed with the Catholic Church's position against abortion but claimed she could not "impose that belief on others."
"It's one thing for the bishop to silence dissent in the Church," she told the Montana Catholic. "It's another thing when the Church enters the halls of the capitol to silence dissent in the public arena."
Despite the disagreement, Schiedermayer told CNS that Keenan was never excommunicated nor was there any public or private attempt to do so.
He said Keenan's depiction of the events as a huge brouhaha with the Church and winning an excommunication battle is a misrepresentation.
Schiedermayer told CNS that the new Helena, Montana bishop, George Thomas, may speak about the Keenan incident in the future and clarify what happened and the church's position.
Keenan is a former three-term Montana State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Why not?
If ever anyone cried out for public excommunication, it's this creep. Yet so far - correct me if I'm wrong - I haven't heard a peep from a single bishop about this "Catholic" who is now head of NARAL.
Another lying RAT, posturing for the gullible media.
And more silent bishops.
Exactly. It's as if they are proud that they did NOT so much as bring up the possibility with her.
That was my reaction, too. Of course, the press just loves this "practicing Catholic" being head of NARAL. But since most of the boys at the bishops' club appear value being a "practicing Dem" even more highly, I guess there's no problem.
Wonder if she ever read this??????
Catechism of the Catholic Church and what it says about those who support abortion
Too bad she wasn't excommunicated. When are the Church's shepards going to start standing up and defending the doctrine of the faith?
Dear God. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
The Church trying to help HER understand ITS opposition to abortion !!
Mind you, since the Pope has now sent the US bishops back from their ad limina visit to carry on their sterling work, things are bound to pick up.
Yes, I'm sure they're all fired up and ready to roll. Especially since JPII commended them on their lousy performance to date.
Dems are different. It doesn't apply to her because she supports insane minimum wage laws.
I think they could certainly start by excommunicating her. She's not a high profile candidate for anything (unlike Kerry, who should also have been excommunicated), so I don't think it would really cost them much and it would be hard for the press to come out and deny that she is contradicting Catholic teaching. The only problem, of course, is that the prior bishop's failure to deal with her set a precedent for permitting her to to do this, so it's going to be hard to change positions now.
If the bishops possessed any small round objects below the beltline, they might try it. Or even if they possessed faith in their heads and hearts - but maybe that's asking for too much.
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