Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of the Catholic archdiocese of Denver, in an interview last week with nationalreview.com, said,

"Our faith should shape our lives, including our political choices. Of course, that demands that we actually study and deepen our Catholic faith. The Catholic faith isn't a set of clothes that we can tailor to a personal fit. We don't 'invent' our faith, and we don't 'own' it. If we really want to be Catholic, then we'll live by Catholic teaching. Otherwise we're just fooling ourselves and abusing the belief of other Catholics who really do try to practice what the Church teaches."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, appearing yesterday on Meet the Press, said,

"I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And Senator--St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose. Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child--first trimester, certain considerations; second trimester; not so third trimester. There's very clear distinctions. This isn't about abortion on demand, it's about a careful, careful consideration of all factors and--to--that a woman has to make with her doctor and her god. And so I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins."

And from his new book, Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life, Archbishop Chaput writes,

"When church leaders refrain from helping political leaders see their moral responsibilities, their lack of action implies that religion has nothing to say to the public square."

You may have heard the old adage, "You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts." You might paraphrase Archbishop Charles Chaput as saying "You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own Catholicism."

And with respect to Pelosi's comments yesterday, we would also add, you are free to vote 100% pro-abortion all of the time but not to massively distort Roe v. Wade.

We'll take the two dimensions one after another.

Alluding to Sen. Barack Obama's comment at the Saddleback forum hosted by Rick Warren, Meet the Press moderator Tom Brokaw asked Pelosi what she would say to Obama if he asked her for help on the question of "When does life begin?"

(That, of course, was not what Rick Warren asked. He inquired of both Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain, "at what point does a baby get human rights"? But, anyway…)

Contrary to what Pelosi told Brokaw, the Catholic Church's position that life begins at conception did not suddenly pop up "maybe 50 years or something like that" ago. Moreover, from the perspective of biology or embryology, there is no debate: life begins at conception.

The debate is over the "so what?" question that follows.

When pro-abortionists aren't pretending they don't know the answer, they race past the truth like a dragster running a red light. Pro-lifers say the knowledge that human life begins at conception makes all the difference in the world.

But to add insult to injury, Pelosi would have the audience believe that Roe v. Wade was a model of judiciary clarity that recognized distinctions and observed limits. Of course, the truth is Roe leveled the abortion statutes of all 50 states and ushered in abortion on demand. No one would accuse Pelosi of being a policy wonk, but, gosh, this answer was wrong at every level.

(By the way, as you may remember, when Rick Warren said that there had been 40 million abortions--actually, the figure is 50 million--Obama did not dispute his tally. He just hid behind the "above my pay grade" excuse.)

The rest of Part Two is composed of two questions National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez asked Archbishop Chaput and his responses. You can read the interview in its entirely at http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ZWI0YWMyYTdlNDVkYTMxMWFiYWVlM2U2NTUwNmEzM2I=

Lopez: Is there an abortion litmus test for Catholics?

Archbishop Chaput: "Litmus test" is a media expression that's front-loaded with the assumption of some priestly censor checking off behavioral-compliance boxes. That's not how any sincere believer thinks about his or her faith. Faithful Catholics want to live their faith fully -- and one of the principles of Catholic social teaching is that we can never deliberately kill innocent human life. Abortion always, deliberately kills an innocent unborn child. Nobody can honestly claim to be a faithful Catholic and then support a false "right" to abortion; it's just an elegant way of evading the brutality of what abortion actually does.

Lopez: Is there any virtue to the Cuomo-esqe personally opposed, etc. formula we see over and over again with politicians, especially Democrats?

Archbishop Chaput: The problem isn't unique to either political party, and no, there's no virtue to the "personally opposed" argument at all. The word "virtue" comes from the Latin virtus meaning strength or courage. I don't see much courage in maneuvering around the reality of abortion with sanitized labels like "pro-choice."

Send your comments to me at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.  Thanks!

Part Three -- Obama v. Biden on partial-birth abortion, tax-funded abortion, and Born-Alive Infants Protection Act