by Valerie Schmalz, OSV contributing editor
So the meeting took place after all.
Brendan Daly, press spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the pro-abortion-rights "ardent" Catholic, has confirmed to OSV this afternoon that she met privately with San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer Feb. 8.
“It went well,” Daly said. “They both thought it was productive and agreed they would meet in the future at some point.” Daly said they did not set a date.
Daly said that the meeting did not sway Pelosi's stance on life issues. “She is not changing her position on abortion,” he said.
Daly said Pelosi still goes to Mass and Communion every Sunday at San Francisco's St. Vincent de Paul parish or elsewhere when she is traveling.
Why are we hearing of this meeting only ten days later? “It was a private meeting. They didn’t feel the need to publicize it and we didn’t feel the need to publicize it," Daly said.
It was so private that the archbishop's own press spokesman, Maurice Healy, seemed unaware of it. He told OSV on Friday that no meeting had taken place, despite the archbishop making himself readily available.
In light of today's revelation, OSV has recontacted Healy and is still awaiting his response. Stay tuned. UPDATE: Healy cites communications mixup.
Posts
Please Vote! Please Vote!
29 minutes ago
15 comments:
Mrs. Pelosi's disdain for Catholic teaching and her attempts to create a personal competing magisterium are intolerable. Recognizing the risks given her position and the reduction in the image of the Church thanks to certain errant priests bishops nonetheless she must be denied communion.yseenp
And while we're at it, perhaps we should single out some Republican politicians who should be denied communion; because I'm fairly certain that supporting torture is a sin. Abortion is not the only important topic that needs to be discussed.
Nice post. Abortion and torture are not moral equivalents. Good try, though! You are repeating worn out boilerplate (and unsuccessful) attempts to rationalize pro-abortion stances.
I wasn't aware that any Republican Catholics supported torture. If they do, they should be ex-communicated, too, right after they ex-communicate all the pro-abortion Democrats.
Until the fetus has developed to the point where it is able to have an immortal soul, it is not a person. Abortion during that early period may be gravely sinful in the eyes of the Church, but is not homicide. Catholic legislators like Nancy Pelosi may support freedom of choice for the mother in the early stages of a pregnancy while the fetus is not yet a person and therefore does not yet have rights.
In response to the last post: so when does the fetus have a soul? Is it weeks, days, hours? I was taught the you have a soul at your conception. perhaps I need a new American updated catechism.
To ramonda2
"Homicide" is a legal term that's not at issue here. That the Church proclaims abortion to be "gravely sinful" and she refuses to accept it says it all to me when she claims to be Catholic. Because she supports grave sin means she is not in communion with the Church. She should simply say that and move to a denomination that agrees with her and stop the charade.
Good try raymonda2...but it won't fly.
It is recognized Catholic teaching and scientifically supported that life begins at the time of conception and within hours the egg and sperm cells no longer exist and the conceived life exists as a unique, created cell structure.
The immortal soul does exist at conception -- See Catechism #366 "The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced" by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection."
In consideration of ranmonda2's post, maybe this is part of the problem. People are under their own understanding of when there is a "person" or human. Biologist agree that life begins at conception and the church takes the same stance. We have an obligation to protect all human's even at the earliest stage of development. Maybe there is a need to better inform people of when life truly begins.
When does the fetus have an immortal soul, and thereupon become a human person? Anonymous asks, “Is it weeks, days, hours?”
I would make my own the sentiment expressed by Barack Obama: It is above my pay grade. Someday, perhaps we will discover the answer to this question, but what are we to do in the meantime? The US Supreme Court presently interprets the civil laws of our pluralistic nation as follows: The fetus has civil rights when it becomes viable, i.e. when it is capable of meaningful life outside the womb. Up until then, its rights are not recognized by our laws and the mother’s rights prevail, including her right to abort the fetus. I support the position of Catholic legislators like Nancy Pelosi who favor measures to help women avoid unwanted pregnancies through contraception and to assist women with troubled pregnancies to carry their baby to term.
For an informed opinion about delayed ensoulment, see the following:
http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2864
Good try Hinderliter but #366 states that "every spiritual soul is created IMMEDIATELY by God" Immediated does not mean hours days or months but NOW>
Raymonda2, You have put together very poor arguments for abortion, and sited very poor arguments as well. We don't practice our religion in a vacuum. When you take in ALL the teachings of the Church through sacred Scripture and Tradition, your position of pro-abortion does not add up. You are showing lack of humility and assigning yourself as your own pope to think any different than the Church. God never said you had to understand ALL of his teachings, he said you had to obey ALL his teachings. Which means you need to assent your will to his. His representative on earth right now is his Bride the Church. He promised he would protect her from error on doctrine. Do you not trust our Lord? Same problem Adam and Eve had, which is why we have original sin. The Devil is a crafty lyer and he has deceived you by using your own intellect. You think because you might be smarter than those in the Magisterium, that you are right. That's Pride. That's dangerous for you. Please reconsider your possition for your own sake.
Do you remember the Bible?
'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.' (Jeremiah 1:5).
There should be no question of when a fetus has a soul. If God knows us before we are formed in the womb then our souls must be created at the moment of conception or maybe even before that moment. Each sperm that naturally unites with an egg has meaning and purpose in this world. Abortion at any stage of life denies the world the joy and beauty of God's creation.
Anthony Ferralli: #366 clearly uses the word "immediately" in the sense of DIRECTLY by God, not indirectly by God via the parents: "The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced" by the parents - ..." This Catechism quotation does not mean immediately in the sense of NOW or at the moment of conception.
Webster defines immediately: (a) without intervening agency or cause; directly (b) without delay; at once; instantly.
You have mistakenly taken the Catechism's use of the word "immediately" in the latter sense (b), while the catechism clearly uses the word in the sense of definition (a).
Anonymous cites Jeremiah 1:5 as a biblical basis for the opinion that “our souls must be created at the moment of conception or maybe even before that moment.”
In a previous post, I referenced an article about when a person becomes a person, http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2864. The following excerpt from that article speaks to this very point and expands on it:
“Christians, of whom this writer is one, can find scant guidance on when personhood begins by reading the Bible. Some cite Jeremiah 1:5 (“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”), but many readers find this to be a statement of Jeremiah’s preordination, not the inception of his personhood. Other find Ecclesiastes 11:5 more relevant (“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things”).
Indeed, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith noted more than three decades ago that it is not within the competence of human knowledge to determine when God infuses an immortal soul into a developing person. (See footnote 19of “Declaration on Procured Abortion,” Nov. 18, 1974)”.
Post a Comment