By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, December 30, 2009
In an interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a sympathetic Eleanor Clift of Newsweek eventually gets around to the question of Catholicism:
Clift: Is it difficult for you to reconcile your faith with the role you have in public life?
Pelosi: You know, I have five children in six years. The day I brought my fifth baby home, that week my daughter turned 6. So I appreciate and value all that they want to talk about in terms of family and the rest.
Comment: The message here—delivered without much subtlety—is that since Pelosi had several children she must perforce be a good Catholic. When she speaks of “family and the rest,” that dismissive term (“the rest”) refers to human life, which is identified in the Declaration of Independence as an “unalienable right.” You remember Jefferson’s immortal phrase: “liberty, pursuit of happiness, and the rest.”
Pelosi (continuing): When I speak to my archbishop in San Francisco and his role is to try to change my mind on the subject, well then he is exercising his pastoral duty to me as one of his flock. When they call me on the phone here to talk about, or come to see me about an issue, that’s a different story. Then they are advocates, and I am a public official, and I have a different responsibility.
Comment: Nice try. It’s true that a public official has a duty to treat constituents equally. If the archbishop were lobbying for some special consideration—a government contracts for Catholic Charities, say—then his request should weigh no more heavily than that of any other supplicant. But Archbishop Niederauer is—or should be—reminding Pelosi of a moral obligation: “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” It doesn’t matter whether he delivers that message in person or by phone; it’s still a pastoral duty rather than a lobbying effort.
If there’s any defense of Pelosi’s argument, it is this: Perhaps she’s so accustomed to having bishops and their representatives approach her in the guise of lobbyists, looking precisely for contracts for Catholic Charities—that she doesn’t recognize them in their primary role.
Nancy Pelosi, Her Archbishop, and Her Conscience: What Ever Happened to “Thou Shalt Not Kill?”
By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, December 30, 2009
In an interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a sympathetic Eleanor Clift of Newsweek eventually gets around to the question of Catholicism:
Comment: The message here—delivered without much subtlety—is that since Pelosi had several children she must perforce be a good Catholic. When she speaks of “family and the rest,” that dismissive term (“the rest”) refers to human life, which is identified in the Declaration of Independence as an “unalienable right.” You remember Jefferson’s immortal phrase: “liberty, pursuit of happiness, and the rest.”