Nancy Pelosi Keeps on Digging

Kathleen Gilbert of Lifesite News reports that Speaker of the US House of Representatives has backpedaled on her statement to NBC's Tom Brokow (Meet the Press) on when human life begins - thereby defending her pro-abortion views while attempting to maintain the political gloss that she is in union with the Church. The nub of her earlier statement is as follows.

"I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time," she said. "

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."

The 10 regular readers of this blog know that John the Mad spent five minutes researching statements from the fathers of the Church correcting her spurious assertion. The results are in a post below.

Her statement created a large negative response from Catholic bishops, 18 ardent and practicing Catholic congresspeople, ordinary ardent and practicing Catholics, and ardent and practicing gay, lesbian, and transgendered Catholics ....

(oops sorry, I got carried away with post-modern rhetorical bafflespeak here .... please delete the latter three cossetted and protected special interest groups. Certain of their ardent and practicing members may take offence at JtM including them and thereby drag JtM before any of the plethora of human rights commissions operating in Canada outside of the principles of freedom and common law my ancestors fought to protect. Being a family man, I simply don't have a spare $100 grand to spend defending my freedom of speech from ardent and practicing zealots who may wish to complain to the modern Canadian Star Chambers. ...... but back to the brouhaha at hand .....)

Ms Gilbert writes:

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the speaker's position as a "pro-abortion Catholic", not because the Church is unclear on when life begins, as earlier stated, but because Catholics routinely contravene "clear Catholic teaching" against abortion.

In a statement praising Pelosi's appreciation for "the sanctity of the family," Brenda Daly, speaking for Pelosi, said, "While Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not ascribe to that view."

In the controversial interview on NBC's Meet The Press that spawned Daly's statement, Pelosi had said, "The Doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition [of when life begins]," and called it "an issue of controversy" throughout the history of the Church. "St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know," said Pelosi.

Brenda Daly's statement says that Pelosi is not justified in her pro-abortion stance due to vague Church teaching, but on the basis that many other "Catholics" also violate Church teaching.

(bolding is mine)

Frankly, my advice to Ms Pelosi is to stop digging. After all many Catholics believe that it gets mighty warm down where she seems determined to go.

Late Breaking News!

John the Mad has learned that Congresswoman Pelosi's office has just released a list of things that she, as an ardent and practicing Catholic believes is okay for other ardent and practicing Catholics to do, even though the Catholic Church has consistently held them to be impermissible for two millennia.

Brenda Daly, speaking on behalf of Congressperson Pelosi, says the list was carefully compiled after 24 hours of intensive research by the Speaker of the House using her new and innovative theological test for sin called "What do many other Catholics violate in Church teaching" and the Washington Post newspaper.

According to Brenda Daly, Ms Pelosi says she first used this test as a precocious six year old when her mother told her she had to go to bed at 8 p.m. She recalls that her brilliant retort to her mother was a vestigial harbinger of her brilliant recent spiritual insight on the matter of abortion. "Why do I have to go to bed now, Mom," she remembers whining. "All my Catholic friends get to go to bed at 8:30."

Ms. Daly said that the Speaker, as an ardent and practicing Catholic fully intends to use this novel defence of "Other Catholics do it" when standing before the throne of God at her last judgement. The brilliance of the Speaker's theological insight speaks for itself, said Ms Daly. It's a wonder Saint Thomas Aquinas didn't think of it.

The list of newly allowed practices for ardent and practicing Catholics is as follows.

1. abortion
2. euthanasia
3. same sex marriage
4. idolatry
5. blasphemy
6. taking the Lord's name in vain
   
7. elder and child abuse
8. assault
9. murder
10. coveting thy neighbours goods
    

"Smoking, bottled water, drilling for oil in the arctic, owning a handgun and coveting John Edwards neighbour's wife will remain on the list of prohibited activities for ardent and practicing Catholics," said the Speaker's spin doctor. "Ms Pelosi will not vote in favour of and congressional bill that favours these matters. There have to be some standards, after all."