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Catholic Hierarchy Takes Issue With Peolosi, Biden On Their Pro-Life Views

By Howard M. Friedman

Fox News reported yesterday that the Catholic Archbishop of Washington, DC, Donald Wuerl has publicly taken issue with remarks about the Church's view on abortion made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On Meet the Press last Sunday, pro-choice Pelosi said the Church's current view that life begins at conception has been Church doctrine for only 50 years or so. In a news release on Monday, Archbishop Wuerl said: "We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops.... The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear: the current teaching of the Catholic Church on human life and abortion is the same teaching as it was 2,000 years ago."

Meanwhile in the same article Fox News reports that pro-choice Joseph Biden in 2006 made the point that the Church's current view that life begins at conception was adopted unequivocally only in the 19th century during the reign of Pope Pius IX. (Interestingly, in Roe v. Wade (at fn. 61), Justice Blackmun similarly argued that the Catholic Church's current view became its official position only in the 19th century.) Reacting to Biden's views, Denver's Archbishop Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput recently told the AP: "I presume that his integrity will lead him to refrain from presenting himself for communion, if he supports a false 'right' to abortion."

Full post as published by Religion Clause on August 27, 2008 (boomark / email).