Posted on 02/19/2009 7:35:38 AM PST by NYer
I trust that the Holy Father BXVI-slapped Nancy in a firm, but loving, way. Kudos to him for no photos. They would only have reinforced Nancy in her unrepentent public error.
Pray that she has a private, then public, conversion.
Rome, Italy, Feb 18, 2009 / 05:52 pm (CNA).- After her meeting with the Holy Father this morning, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi released a statement highlighting the positive aspects of the meeting but ignoring the Pope’s correction of her support for legal abortion.
In her statement, Pelosi says:”It is with great joy that my husband, Paul, and I met with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, today. In our conversation, I had the opportunity to praise the Church’s leadership in fighting poverty, hunger, and global warming, as well as the Holy Father’s dedication to religious freedom and his upcoming trip and message to Israel. I was proud to show His Holiness a photograph of my family’s papal visit in the 1950s, as well as a recent picture of our children and grandchildren.
In contrast, the Holy See released a statement regarding the meeting noting that Pope Benedict spoke of the requirements of the natural moral law and also the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception until natural death, which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists, and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of development.
Comparing the two releases, Catholic commentator and author George Weigel responded saying that the statement from the office of Pelosi makes it obvious that there is more to the story: that Pelosi, who shamelessly trumpets her ardent Catholicism while leading congressional Democrats in a continuing assault on what the Catholic Church regards as the inalienable human rights of the unborn, was trying to recruit Benedict XVI to Team Nancy.
But Pope Benedict wasn’t swayed, Weigel told the National Review Online. During the meeting, the Holy Father told her politely but unmistakably that her pro-abortion support puts her in serious difficulties as a Catholic, which was his obligation as a pastor. Furthermore, Weigel asserts, Pope Benedict was directing his words to other pro-abortion Catholics in the United States: Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Barbara Mikulski, Rose DeLauro, Kathleen Sebelius, and others clarifying to them that the Catholic stance against abortion is not some weird Catholic hocus-pocus it’s a first principle of justice than can be known by reason. It is a requirement of the natural moral law says Weigel, that is, the moral truths we can know by thinking about what is right and what is wrong ,to defend the inviolability of innocent human life. You don’t have to believe in papal primacy to know that; you don’t have do believe in seven sacraments, or the episcopal structure of the Church, or the divinity of Christ, to know that. You don’t even have to believe in God to know that. You only have to be a morally serious human being, willing to work through a moral argument which, of course, means being the kind of person who understands that moral truth cannot be reduced to questions of feminist political correctness or partisan political advantage.
Though it is apparent that Pelosi is deeply confused about what her church teaches on the morality of abortion, Weigel continues, she has now been informed, and by a world-class intellectual who happens to be the universal pastor of the Catholic Church, that she is, in fact, confused, and that both her spiritual life and her public service are in jeopardy because of that. Weigel adds that even though President Obama is not Catholic, he should understand that he will get the same message if, as expected, he meets with His Holiness later this year.
Lest anyone get the wrong impression here, "The Church" has not changed Her teachings to embrace moral relativism. On the particular subject of abortion, the actual Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes, the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) said this:
"Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes."
Canon Law still provides for excommunication latae sentenciae (automatically) in cases of deliberate abortion.
So the official teaching of the Church on this matter has not, and will not, change. What changed (and this is hard to explain, and perplexing) is a kind of pastoral style which emphasizes "dialogue" and "sensitivity" to a morally vitiating and exaggerated degree. There have been "Church Laws" against abortion, but precious little enforcement for more than a generation.
The "pastoral style" of false compassion, of corrupt hierarchs ignoring their plain duty, results in malformed consciences, of which the scandalous voting behavior of Catholics and the stated opinions of Madame Pelosi are only the most prominent evidence.
Time for us lay people to step in and enforce a little "sensus fidelium." There's actually nothing wrong with the Catholic Church when the Catholic Church acts Catholic.
Lord knows she's served us enough Bull.
No matter how you slice it, Nancy Pelosi is full of bull.
Fine, if they want to cling to that pansey “she excommunicated herself”,
then make a public announcement by an official spokesman (Bishop) to that effect,
and refuse to give her communion.
“Sorry I missed the program. Do you recall the priest’s name?”
I don’t recall, but he sure was a cutie-pie! He was tough on Pelosi and didn’t back down when BO played devil’s advocate in a half-assed defense of Pelosi and her motives. I’ll see if I can find his name.
Yeah... “social justice”, a meaningless phrase intended simply to silence any opposition to the fascist processes that the speaker intends to implement,
is more important than mass infanticide.
As a exercise, step through the horizontal Commandments and see where the left/liberals stand on each of them...
Lest anyone be misled by the previous comment, here are just a few concrete examples:
| CONCILIAR TEACHING | HOW INTERPRETED BY ROME1 |
|
The liturgy of the word is stressed (Sacrosanctum Concilium,2 §9), and the banquet aspect (§10), as well as active participation (§§11,14), and therefore the vernacular (§§36,54). |
The New Mass. |
|
Catholics should pray with Protestants (Unitatis Redintegratio, §§4,8). |
Eucharistic Hospitality. |
| The Church of Christ subsists in (not is) the Catholic Church (Lumen Gentium, §8), | It is also in “separated Churches” (Ut Unum Sint,3 §11). |
| which has separated brethren in separated “Churches” (Unitatis Redintegratio, §3), | All the baptized are in Christ’s Church (Ut Unum Sint, §42). |
| which ought to be as sisters (Unitatis Redintegratio, §14). | And so there is no need to convert, e.g., the Orthodox.4 |
| Seminarians should take into account modern philosophy, progress in science (Optatam Totius, §15), | Secular university studies and abandoning Thomism. |
| psychology, and sociology (§20). | Open spirituality and subjective morality. |
| Marriage and married love equated (Gaudium et Spes, §§48,50). | Annulments fiasco. |
| The Church renounces privileges civil authorities grant her (§76). | Catholic religion no longer to be the religion of any States. |
| Wish for a World Authority (§82). | Full support for UN |
| Rite and formulae of penance are to be revised (Sacrosanctum Concilium §72). | Face to face confessions and General Absolutions.5 |
| Extreme Unction should be an Anointing of the Sick (§§73,75). | New matter, form and subject (i.e., the sick, not just those in danger of death). |
| FOOTNOTES TO THIS TABLE 1 How Rome's guidelines are further interpreted as seen in the parishes is a whole other story. 2 The documents of Vatican II are referred to by their introductory Latin words, or by the initials of these. 3 Ut Unum Sint, Pope John Paul II, May 25, 1995. 4 Cf., The Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which forbade mutual "proselytizing." Balamand, Lebanon, 17 to 24 June 1993. 5 Does this affect the "substance of the sacraments" over which the Church has no power? (Cf., Pius XII, quoted in PRINCIPLE 5) |
|
That’s how it works: the person proves themself incorrigibly heretical and the Church rules that the position the person has taken is openly heretical and a scandal to the faithful. They are then spiritually isolated by being issued a Bull outlining their errors and requiring open and complete recanting of the error and willingness to undergo absolution, penance and restitution.
That’s excommunication, operationally.
So, do you think this is “in process” for CINO democRats?
she was called out at her re-election. she got around it by saying how she was “personally” against abortion, but the will of the people was that abortion should be legal.
I think it will be pursued if ordinary Catholics simply state their abhorrence of the situation and how much scandal it causes them. Publicly. With a parish priest in earshot. The Church usually does not take draconian action unless there’s a serious threat to either the congregations or the operation (can’t help saying it: look at the pedophile scandal and what it took to get proper action).
So, threads like this, blogs and general ruckus-raising are just what the Holy Father can use to order the actions taken.
Fr. Jonathan Morris. He’s stationed in Rome now.
And not Bp Neideraurer? Isn’t he her bishop and thus her episcopal ordinary? Should the draft not be drawn up by his chancellery?
And that's different from every other day how? He's used to it. So are we.
You’re right.
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