Seasons of Grace
I know it won’t do any good, but God bless him for trying! Archbishop Cordileone is once again trying to help Nancy Pelosi understand that a person’s a person, no matter how small.
Archbishop Cordileone is one of my heroes. I first met him when I was working with Legatus and he–probably still serving in the Diocese of San Diego, if memory serves me–celebrated Mass at the organization’s Annual Summit. His homilies were always spot-on, exciting, inspiring. I greatly respect his fidelity to Church teaching; but I also was touched by his generous smile, his humble demeanor, his abundant kindness to everyone.
Archbishop Cordileone has been a strong and consistent supporter of life, and has consistently upheld Church teaching with regard to marriage as the lifelong commitment of one man and one woman before God.
And he has patiently schooled his most famous constituent in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Representative Nancy Pelosi.
Last week Pelosi, who is a vocal proponent of abortion rights, stubbornly refused to answer a question from a journalist who wanted to know whether she thought a twenty-week-old fetus was human. Lauretta Brown, reporting for Catholic News Service, explained:
At her Jan. 22 press conference at the Capitol, CNSNews.com twice asked Pelosi whether an unborn child 20 weeks into pregnancy is a human being.
Pelosi would not answer the yes-no question with a yes-no answer, but did say that a woman has “the right” to abort her child.
“The fact is is what we have said: The life and the health of the mother is what is preeminent in when a decision is made about a woman’s reproductive health,” said Pelosi, after declining for the second time to say if an unborn child at 20 weeks is a human being. “It isn’t an ideological fight, it is a personal health issue.
“And as a mother of five, in six years, I have great standing on this issue, great understanding of it, more than my colleagues. In fact, one day many years ago, perhaps before you were born, when I was a new member of Congress, as a Catholic and a mom of five, opposing some of the initiatives similar to what–in the same vein as–what we have today, one of the Republicans stood up and said: Nancy Pelosi thinks she knows more about having babies than the pope.
Archbishop Cordileone, Pelosi’s archbishop, responded with a written statement to CNSNews.com. He recalled the scientific fact that human life begins at conception, and reminded us that Catholic moral teaching acknowledges this scientific fact. He recalled that the Church has always affirmed the grave moral evil of taking an innocent human life.
The archbishop continued:
“This has been the consistent teaching of the Church from the very beginning, a teaching already discernible in the natural moral law, and so a teaching from which no Catholic can dissent in good conscience.
“It is the obligation of pastors of souls to reach out to their people who have difficulty understanding and accepting such important teachings of the Church in order to extend to them true pastoral care and, where appropriate, to establish a regular dialogue. This is something I have always striven to do in the various ministries I have exercised as a priest and bishop, including now as the Archbishop of San Francisco. I ask for people’s prayers for success as I continue to strive to do this.”
Prayers for Archbishop Cordileone, as he continues to change Ms. Pelosi’s heart and mind on this, the most important legislative issue of our age.
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This is not the first public response which Archbishop Cordileone has offered, in response to Ms. Pelosi’s skewed understanding. In June 2014, Rep. Pelosi scolded her Archbishop, demanding that he not participate in the March For Marriage and prompting CatholicVote to ask, “Just who the hell does Nancy Pelosi think she is?” On that occasion, too, Archbishop Cordileone responded with a public letter.
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