The Hill newspaper reports that Speaker of the House and self-appointed ‘Speaker of the Church’ Nancy Pelosi was blasted by Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl for the comments she made on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

While it is rare for American Catholic leaders to publicly rebuke top politicians, Wuerl noted in an Archdiocese of Washington official press release that “[w]e 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”   

On Sunday morning, the self-professed ‘ardent and practicing Catholic’, answered a question asked by moderator Tom Brokaw on when life begins by saying that the Church has not been able to come up with a definition of when life begins.

After Mr. Brokaw, pointed out that the Catholic Church feels strongly that life begins at conception, Pelosi replied, “I understand. And this is, like, maybe 50 years or something like that. So, again, over the history of the Church, this is an issue of controversy”, the release said

In the Archdiocese press release, Wuerl notes, “[t]he 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. The Catechism reads:

“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception…Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. (Catechism, 2270-2271) The Catechism goes on to quote the Didache, a treatise that dates back to the first century: “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.”

Unfortunately, The Hill newspaper also reports that Speaker Pelosi recently said that she, unlike other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, has not clashed with her church about receiving communion.

“I think some of it is regional”, said Pelosi. “It depends on the bishop of a certain region, and, fortunately for me, communion has not been withheld and I’m a regular communicant, so that would be a severe blow to me if that were the case.”   

With pro-abortion politicos Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden trying to hijack Catholic doctrine for their own political expediency and to advance the candidacy of Barack Obama, the Church is certainly going to need a few more Bishops with a spine, like Archbishop Wuerl, if the Catholic Faith is going to endure this season of pandering and electioneering.

The Church will need to deny those looking to define the Faith as one of moral relativism and Pelosi and others will need to be held for their direct conflict of Church doctrine and God’s Law.