Opinion: Speaker Pelosi�s Bishop Corrects Her Once Again. Call to Catholic Action.

By Deacon Keith Fournier
1/14/2010
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Do not let Speaker Nancy Pelosi continue to confuse you. Pray for the Speaker but resist her lies and oppose evil.

Archbishop George H. Niederauer in a well written piece entitled �Free Will, Conscience and Moral Choice: What Catholics believe� has once again corrected the Speaker, a member of his flock.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - One of the great scandals of our age is the leadership of some of our fellow Catholics in public life who are unfaithful to the teaching of our Church and betray their public trust. Sadly, they demonstrate the danger warned of in the last great ecumenical council of our Church, Vatican II.

The Council Fathers in their document on the Christian mission - Lumen Gentium, �Light to the Nations - used a phrase which has been repeated many times since then in numerous teachings from the contemporary Popes and is a favorite of our own U.S. Bishops. They warned of the �separation between faith and life.� They called it one of the �greatest errors of our age�. And, so it truly is... advanced with the help of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some other Catholics in public life.

In his prophetic Encyclical Letter entitled �The Gospel of Life" John Paul II wrote concerning a �perverse idea of freedom" as a raw power over others. He reaffirmed the "essential link" between freedom and truth. This connection is the beating heart of morality and common sense. In "The Splendor of Truth" he proclaimed that "freedom itself needs to be set free" from the lie of the current age. He exposed the counterfeit notions of freedom, the rotted fruit of the new paganism, materialism and nihilism which calls itself �progressivism� when it it is actually regressivism.

Authentic faithful Christians - and especially Catholic Christians who have the wealth of the teaching office of the �Social Magisterium� of the Church - must now become the champions of freedom in this age. Millions are depending upon our courage to resist the lies of this current deluded age and rebuild the Western vision of a free society.

We must insist upon the essential connection between freedom, truth and responsibility to prevent the continued descent of the West into a new paganism masquerading as �freedom.� The horrors which will be unleashed in the name of a �freedom� which is a lie are evident in the blood of all those killed through procured abortions since Roe. Let�s cut to the chase, killing our first neighbors in the womb in the name of �choice� is evil, sick and unlawful.

It also violates the Natural Law even if the current positive law allows it. It is barbarism. As Christians we agree that humans are �free� to choose. However we insist that some choices are always wrong. Perhaps the most obvious example is the lie that a nation can treat an entire class of human persons as property to be used � and killed- rather than a gift to be received and recognized as our neighbors, and still claim to be free and just.

As Catholic Christians who are citizens in this experiment in ordered liberty called the United States of America, we have been able to flourish. That is because the founding documents of this Nation, (even if it took centuries to understand their implications in certain areas), articulated truths derived from the classical Natural Law thinking of Western Christendom.

These truths were set forth in the great philosophical tradition of the Latin Church in St. Thomas Aquinas, but they find their origin in the teachings of the early Fathers of the �Patristic� age of the Church. They are the fruit of the tree of real liberty whose roots are sunk deeply in the Biblical texts, Old and New Testament.

For example, the American founders insistence upon the existence of �unalienable rights� which are �endowed by a Creator� on every human person was inspired. The Declaration is the Birth Certificate of the American Republic. Our acceptance of the existence of universally recognized rights, truths and obligations has informed the foundation for the Western understanding of the Rule of Law. It is also the source of of our true liberties.

The insistence that fundamental human rights are not conferred by Civil Government but endowed by God is what made Western Civilization flourish. It still serves as a beacon of hope for the entire world. There is a �Natural Law� which is written on our conscience. That Natural Law is a participation in God�s law. It is knowable through the exercise of reason by all men and women, whether they acknowledge God's existence or not. It is that Natural Law which is the measuring stick for any truly just �positive� or �civil� law. When we fail to recognize this we lose our way and we lose our freedom. Our history attests to this.

The substitution of license for liberty is what John Paul II had in mind when he warned of "a notion of freedom, which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and service of them." As he prophetically cautioned, it results from the "eclipse of the sense of God and of man typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism." That is what has infected our beloved Nation. ...

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1 - 10 of 30 Comments

Mary
3 years ago
I personally am tired of Pelosi thumbing her nose at the church. I think she's being obstinate and delusional in refusing to acknowledge the Church's teachings on abortion.

I am one of the "tired". Someone sick to death of hearing about her obstinate denial of her obligations as a member of the Catholic church. IMHO....it's time to stop giving her a free pass. The Church needs to deal with her directly and publically.
Lucy Millar
3 years ago
Mrs. Pelosi please take heed: God does not turn His back on us, it is we that turn our backs on God... Sodom and Gomorrah... Lot's wife turned around and turned to salt while the fire consumed her. Mrs. Pelosi has already excommunicated herself� enough said
davd
3 years ago
Rev Dubuque
I am trying to grasp your thinking about what is teen tiny disagreement is. The article was talking about what a bishop said and referenced letters from pope john paul and the catechism. About what is freedom It is also pointing out that polosi is saying this is what she learned from the church. They are pointing out that she is fibbing about that. She is not worried about what is morally right by her faith or just what is right. Sadly she is more worried about making history. By any means no matter what. Even if it is not what the people want.
If she was strong in her faith there would be no vote on sunday and she would be quick to listen instead of quick to speak.

We all stray from God sadly but if we choice to stay away from him it is our fault not his. I pray for you that you will be quick to listen and hear what I heard from speaches of mrs polosi and decide for yourself what she really thinks is important. Doing what is morally right or what will make history.
Rev. Ray Dubuque
3 years ago
You "Catholics online" enjoy the right to criticize even the President of the U.S. and the Speaker of the House, but your idea of "robust discussion" is someone having a teeny, tiny disagreement with your view of Catholicism. You're a JOKE!!! And God knows your readers won't be allowed to see this post!
gaetano
3 years ago
I don`t care what religion she comes back to ,so long as GOD AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST are beleived in it. This nation will aways be ONE NATION UNDER GOD. How could any person that believes in God ,also beleive in abortion?
Peter Gwyn
3 years ago
A good article, yes we must pray for lost sheep. However if they continue their scandelous behavior as "know nothing" Speaker Pelosi insists then Catholic Bishops please stand up for Christ and kick her out of the Church until she wakes up to the requirements of the Catholic Faith. St. Paul would have cleaned house long ago of such so-called Catholics.
Albert Frank
3 years ago
It is commonly known that Albert Einstein had a brain. In the case of finger pointing or moving the finger like Senator Harkin does when making a point, can they make a square, a rectangle, a circle, or triangle while they speak with it? No wonder scientists think that there must be parallel universes. It looks as if some brains have left the area never to return.
JeanCatherine
3 years ago
Elizabeth

God Bless you.

Pray for Pelosi to come back to the Catholic Faith with me. Ok.
Elizabeth
3 years ago
"Resist her lies and oppose evil"? Sheesh, no wonder so many people think we're nuts. I don't feel this article represents Catholicism well at all.
JeanCatherine
3 years ago
Tim

If you get the chance read why Henry The VII divorced the Catholic Church then proceeded to persecute Catholics in Britain.

Also Amendment I of the Constitution doesn't say anything about separation of Church and State.

Obviously the founding fathers wanted to protect their own religious beliefs for their fellow brothers and sisters of the future.

Also if you get the chance take a look at 2000 years of Church History which also goes even farther back to Judaism.

Read Romans and other passages which refer to sexual immorality.

You also might want to take a look at real church history from the beginning.

Also see the Courage Apostolate as well as

http://pfox.org/about_us.html

NARTH.COM

Also your saying that the 1960's has given us a sexual revolution to the good of society?

Just a question Im not here to fight with anyone?

The ideas in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer arent what is taught in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

If you get the chance I propose not force you to check it out.

The Lord never promoted relaxation of sexual morality but He did predict where this world was going pretty fast if we didnt acknowledge the Kingdom of God.

The founding Fathers are just men and I might admit intelligent and the cream of the crop of the Colonies. This was then and now its now. Our society is tredding on dangerous ground and it doesnt even acknowledge it. Many people scoff at an entity called Satan but it is real. We just need to take the blinders off.

Notice that they didnt leave England because of Catholic persecution, they left England because of political persecution.

See the difference? Those colonial times were different mindsets as well. You have open country and freedom to do many things. We live in a different world now and have many decisive actions to think about which will be detrimental to our society now and in the future.

You cant kill 50,000,000 babies and not feel some kind of repercusions for a future.

Humbly and Peace.

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