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 beforeall 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 brotherand 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 countryin ...