|
NRL News
Writing
Straight with Crooked Lines I like to say that sometimes God writes straight with crooked lines. As a parish priest, you may imagine I was doing something else on Sunday morning, August 24, when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made her now-infamous remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press about what the Catholic Church teaches about when human life begins and abortion. I did later hear what she said; but then, didn’t everybody? Speaker Pelosi said that, as a Catholic, she had long studied the issue and that the doctors of the Church had not been able to define when life begins. (Did she know that the “doctors of the Church” were not scientists or medical doctors?) She went on to say that, therefore, “The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.” At any rate we pro-lifers have heard it all before—all the vacuous equivocations to hide the reality of what abortion is and does. For more than 35 years the pro-life movement has dedicated itself to opening the eyes of our fellow citizens to see that that tiny child in the womb is our sister or brother—and deserves compassion and protection! Or as the Democratic presidential nominee recently said (about everything else except the abortion issue), “We still don’t abide by that basic precept of Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” I do not know the motivation nor the intentions of the Speaker in making her remarks. Some have suggested ill-will, or purposeful misinformation, or even invincible ignorance, or perhaps just a politician marshalling arguments for a position already reached for other reasons. In attempting to articulate what the Church doesn’t really teach about abortion, Speaker Pelosi stepped on the toes of the Catholic bishops whose job it is to spell out clearly what the Catholic Church actually teaches. This is where God writes straight with crooked lines. For the Speaker’s comments provoked a firestorm of response from bishops all across the country—in clear and sometimes eloquent statements. The Bishops’ Conference jumped in, issuing a factual correction, noting “that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization, ... the Church teaches that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.” Then there were the usual pro-life heroes, like Denver’s Archbishop Charles Chaput, who wrote, “Abortion kills an unborn, developing human life. It is always gravely evil, and so are the evasions employed to justify it. Catholics who make excuses for it—whether they’re famous or not—fool only themselves and abuse the fidelity of those Catholics who do sincerely seek to follow the Gospel and live their Catholic faith.” New York Cardinal Edward Egan’s statement was tremendous: “No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. ... They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith.” Whatever she may have intended, Speaker Pelosi succeeded, at a crucial point in the political process: • in focusing the nation’s attention on the abortion issue; • in getting the leaders of the largest single church/denomination in the country to speak out with gusto on the issue and with some punch in their words; and • in allowing millions of Catholics and other citizens to hear the truth, despite her words, about the sanctity and dignity of human life. And now comes Sarah Palin ... the story continues. God writes straight with crooked lines. Oh yes, and God’s will will not be thwarted. |