By Dave Andrusko

Editor's note. Please send your thoughts and observations to daveandrusko@gmail.com

Hats off to Fox News. Granted, I could not have read all the stories about pro-abortion Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's visit yesterday with Pope Benedict XVI, but I read a lot of them. None came near the comprehensiveness of Fox News's account which put the 15-minute meeting at Vatican City in a meaningful context.

All of the stories addressed the obvious limitation. No reporters were allowed in so what happened was private. All we know for sure is what was in the statements issued first by the Vatican and then later by Pelosi's office. Pelosi's boilerplate comments need not detain us.

As for the visit from the Pope's perspective, by and large the stories I read were minor variations of "The Vatican released the pope's remarks to Pelosi, saying Benedict spoke of the church's teaching 'on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.' That is an expression often used by the pope when expressing opposition to abortion." Fox News went much further, quoting extensively from the Vatican's statement.

"His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoins all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.' (My emphasis.)

Even a non-Catholic, like myself, can easily grasp what's being asserted and its significance for a ardent pro-abortionist like Pelosi who in an appearance on "Meet the Press" last August described herself as an "ardent, practicing Catholic." And that is that whatever our religious convictions (or if we have none at all), we can all understand the moral injunction to honor the dignity of human life from conception to natural death AND that those who are in key positions have a special obligation to nurture the kind of legal system that enfolds all members of the human community within its protection.

Fox News also did a very nice job reminding its readers of three other key points. (1) "The pontiff has a long history of urging Catholic politicians to toe the line on abortion." (2) "In 2002, the Vatican issued a doctrinal note on 'The Participation of Catholics in Political Life,' which states rather succinctly that politicians who profess to be Catholic have a 'grave and clear obligation' to oppose any law that attacks human life."

And (3) in that same "Meet the Press" interview, Pelosi audaciously asserted that the Catholic Church had been inconsistent (when it hadn't just punted) on the question of when life begins. There was a strong suggestion that it was not until very recently that the Catholic Church really took abortion seriously and, in any event (according to Pelosi), "the point is, that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose."

This set off of what Fox News described as a "verbal slugfest with American bishops." A much better characterization would have been that Pelosi's egregious misrepresentation of Church teaching had to be corrected.

Among others, Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput did so. In a letter to his flock, he wrote, "Ardent, practicing Catholics will quickly learn from the historical record that from apostolic times, the Christian tradition overwhelmingly held that abortion was grievously evil." (See www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Aug08/nv082608Part2.html)

A tip of the hat to Fox News for fair and balanced coverage.

Part One