Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "Teachable Moment"

Yesterday, Catholidoxy and Amy Welborn responded with excellent posts to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's abysmal display of ignorance of Catholic teaching on Meet The Press, the former with a basic history lesson as to what the Church has actually taught, the latter with a plea that Pelosi's botched presentation constituted a "teaching moment" for the Catholic bishops:

Here you have a very prominent American Catholic, going on the record with her purported studiousness on this issue, authoritatively declaring something false about the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is what we call a teachable moment. Monday morning, the USCCB should have a press release, accompanied by a real human being - preferably a bishop - maybe even a Colorado bishop, given the location and the proximity of the press - giving a short, succinct correction of Pelosi’s statement. It wouldn’t take long. Do it right in front of where the convention is meeting.

Today, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver delivered -- in a statement eloquently titled “On the Separation of Sense and State".

Likewise, Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine issued a statement posted to the main page of the website of the U.S. Catholic Bishops:

n the course of a “Meet the Press” interview on abortion and other public issues on August 24, 2008, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion.

The Church has always taught that human life deserves respect from its very beginning and that procured abortion is a grave moral evil. In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.

These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church has long taught that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.

More information on the Church's teaching on this issue can be found in our brochure "The Catholic Church is a Pro-Life Church". PDF | Text

• Statement on Responsibilities of Catholics in Public Life
  
• “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper”: On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist

We'd like to thank Archbishop Chaput for his outstanding letter, and to Cardinal Justin F. Rigali and Bishop William E. Lori for stepping up so quickly. It's our fervent hope that this will establish something of a trend in Bishops' responses to "pro-choice" Catholics who publicly misrepresent and repudiate Catholic teaching.

Update! Not to be outdone, Archbishop Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington issues a statement.

Now, perhaps a little something from Pelosi's home diocese?

Update! - Cardinal Egan of New York City piles on:

Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in this day and age.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

Edward Cardinal Egan
Archbishop of New York

Update! Nancy Pelosi releases a statement via her spokesman, Breandan Daily -- escalating the dispute and publicly repudiating the Church's teaching authority.