Recently there have been a number of politicians in the news that are both "Catholic" and in favor of abortion. My complete frustration with this is that while they have a wide audience with media, they are broadcasting an erroneous message regarding the Church and where She stands on abortion.
One such instance occurred on Sunday when Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, stated on Meet the Press that "doctors of the church" have not been able to define when life begins and that "over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy". She referenced St. Augustine, specifically.
St. Augustine claimed that a human baby probably had a soul after about 3 months. I feel compelled to also mention that St. Augustine lived between the years of 354-430 !! Not too many ultrasounds around then. In addition, although these were his personal opinions, the Church has
always said that abortion is wrong.
There have been many great Saints throughout the centuries who have held ideas that weren't "official teachings of the Church". If you know a faithful Catholic who is a vegetarian, it doesn't mean that being one is "official Church teaching." As Catholics, we can all have our ideas/preferences in life (homeschooling vs. public vs. private, spanking vs. time-outs, etc.) but Church teaching doesn't change. If you're ever in doubt, reference the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The bad news here is that many good Catholics may be misinformed, may see politicians like Pelosi on TV, and feel that maybe the Church is indeed not settled on this issue. Shame on her for misrepresenting the Church.
Thankfully, a number of Catholic bishops have written publicly to inform faithful Catholics as well as Nancy Pelosi that her remarks were indeed wrong:
Archbishop Chaput of Northern Colorado issued a statement in which he stated, "The duty of the Church and other religious communities is moral witness. The duty of the state and its officials is to serve the common good, which is always rooted in moral truth. A proper understanding of the "separation of Church and state" does not imply a separation of faith from political life. But of course, it's always important to know what our faith actually teaches."
Ten Catholic members of Congress also responded to Pelosi stating, "As fellow Catholics and legislators, we wish you would have made a more honest effort to lay out the authentic position of the Church on this core moral issue before attempting to address it with authority."
In addition, the
US Conference of Catholic Bishops responded,
Archbishop Weurl of Washington D.C., and
Cardinal Egan all came out noting her error and requesting that she become more informed before speaking to the media with perceived Church teaching.
H/T
American Papist
My wonder-toddler climbed up using only that small blue stool (and a lot of upper-body strength, I'm guessing). The sad thing is, his old habit was emptying out the two drawers you can see in the photo. So, the night before this incident, I completely emptied out those drawers of everything except toddler-approved distraction devices (hair ties, brushes, combs, etc). He must have gone into the bathroom and been disappointed with the remnants in the drawers and decided to climb on to bigger and better things.
