On July 20, during an interview with CBS News correspondent Lara Logan in Kabul, Afghanistan, Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama was asked if he ever had any doubts about his foreign policy experience. In a show of what has become his signature arrogance and defiance of reality, Obama gave a one word answer that should frighten every single voter: “Never.”

Not to be out-arroganced, Speaker of the House and self-appointed theologian and Catholic dogmatic scholar Nancy Pelosi recently opined on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “doctors of the church have not been able to define when life begins”. The Pelosi back-and–forth began when moderator Tom Brokaw asked the Democratic Speaker of the House about the implications of the “above my pay grade” comments Mr. Obama made in an interview with Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church.

In the following days, Pelosi came under fire from U.S. Catholic bishops, in a rare show of involvement in things political. Her comments prompted swift rebukes from Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and Denver Bishop Charles Chaput, who both said that Pelosi was incorrect and that Catholic teaching has consistently condemned abortion and defined life as beginning with conception.

According to the Association Press, Cardinal Edward Eagan of New York voiced similar sentiment on Tuesday. Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and Bishop William Lori, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, also issued a statement correcting Pelosi.

Despite clear and direct guidance from Catholic Church scholars to the contrary, Pelosi continued with her attempts to re-write Catholic doctrine. In a statement from a Pelosi spokesman, the self-anointed ‘Speaker of the Church’ “fully appreciates the sanctity of family” and based upon her own views on conception on the “views of Saint Augustine, who said: ‘…the law does not provide that the act (abortion) pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation…’”

Bishop Lori and cardinal Regali responded by stating “uniformed and inadequate theories about embryology”  in the Middle Ages led “some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in cannon law these theories led to a distraction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.”

It is beyond arrogance that Nancy Pelosi continues to defy Catholic theologians and cannon as she continues her effort to re-write dogma. In much the same vain as Barack Obama declaring that he has “never” questioned his own experience on issues of foreign policy, Nancy Pelosi is showing an enormous amount of conceit in her ongoing effort to reshape and rewrite the Catholic position on when life begins.

Speaker Pelosi should be mindful of another quote attributed to St. Augustine: “God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand you have failed.”

After highlighting his Catholicism more than 10 times in his Springfield, Ill. acceptance speech given alongside presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama, Senator Joe Biden was scolded by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput on Monday and urged to forgo Communion due to his pro-abortion stance, reports the Washington Times.  

Archbishop Chaput, who led a pro-life candlelight vigil Monday night in front of a Denver Planned Parenthood, said that Senator Biden’s support for abortion rights was “seriously wrong” and said that Biden should “avoid taking Communion as a result of his pro-choice stand on abortion.”

Biden’s pro-abortion stance combines with recent deceptive statements made by self-appointed ‘Speaker of the Church’ Nancy Pelosi, to fuel growing concerns about the success of the Democratic Party’s renewed out-reach to religious voters while still embracing its long-standing support for unfettered access to abortion.

The Archbishop, who was not invited to speak at any convention events in what appeared to be a deliberate snub, told the Associated Press that he would like to speak with Biden privately, reports the Washington Times.

Catholics, the nation’s largest religious voting bloc, represents 26 percent of the electorate. Alexia Kelly, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, said that 11 percent of those this year are considered “swing voters,” more than in any recent election year.

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.   

On Meet the Press this Sunday morning, Speaker of the House and self-appointed ‘Speaker of the Church’, Nancy Pelosi, when prompted by moderator Tom Brokaw, declared “[a]nd what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition.”

The unresolved definition Nancy Pelosi was referring to was the Catholic Church’s position on ‘at what point life begins’. A self-described “ardent and practicing Catholic”, Speaker Pelosi claims to have “studied this for a long time” and arrived at the conclusion that “I don’t think anybody could tell you where life begins”, apparently including the Catholic Church.

Here are excerpts from the transcript from Sunday’s Meet the Press:  

MR. BROKAW: Senator Obama saying the question of when life begins is above his pay grade, whether you’re looking at it scientifically or theologically. If he were to come to you and say, “Help me out here, Madame Speaker. When does life begin?” what would you tell him?

While Catholics know that faith is something that Sen. Obama feels that Americans simply ‘cling to’ during hard times, Pelosi’s assertions came as a real shock to many Catholics who know that the Church has consistently stood-up for the rights of the unborn. For many, it is especially destructive when it comes from a person who attempts to describes herself as a good Catholic and one who has a firm knowledge of Church doctrine. However, Mrs. Pelosi is dead-wrong on her assertions.

Beggining with the Bible, there are a number of direct references to abortion and to life starting at the point of conception (James 2:26). Throughout history the Church has maintained that the God-given soul is found in all humans from the point of conception until mortal death. As recent as 1995, Pope John Paul II declared in Evangelium Vitae 62:

“[T]he Church’s teaching on abortion “is unchanged and unchangeable. Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his successors . . . I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church”

As a surrogate for Barack Obama — in what can only be described as move of squalid political expediency — Nancy Pelosi appears to have purposefully misstated the position of the Church in an attempt to allay Catholic fears about the flawless pro-abortion voting record of Barack Obama.

Making-up a large number of the undecided voters this election cycle, Mr. Obama knows that he will likely need Catholic support to win on November 4. And he is doing his best to both satisfy his pro-abortion base and court disaffected Catholics. However, Catholics doubts about a man who has a clear and consistent liberal voting record and professed pro-abortion ideological stance will not simply be assuaged by a Pelosi or Joe Biden, no matter how many times they remind us that they too are Catholic. Mr. Obama’s words speak volumes about what kind of Presidency he would bring to the White House.

During the recent Saddleback forum with Pastor Rick Warren, Mr. Obama was asked to answer a question about when he though that an infant starts to have human rights. This was his answer: “whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is, you know, above my pay grade.”  

It has also been reported that Mr. Obama voted against a bill in the Illinois State Legislature which would have mandated that doctors try and save the life of an infant that had just survived a botched abortion. Called the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act, Obama cited in particular his concerns about the constitutionality of the definition of a “born alive infant” and the inclusion of potential civil and criminal penalties for doctors in these situations.  

And he might also be trying to make people forget about his 2007 speech to Planned Parenthood where he assured the pro-abortion crowd that his first act as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would overturn hundreds of state laws which current place limits on abortion such as parental notification or waiting periods.

But, having spinsters such as Nancy Pelosi flat-out lie about the Catholic position on abortion certainly will not entice church-going Catholics to take a second look at Obama and will only serve to shed an amazing amount of light on his radically liberal views on abortion.