Jeffrey Miller

On the first night of the DNC convention Archbishop Chaput was at the site of a new Planned Parenthood clinic in a primarily Latino and African-American suburb of Denver (some things never change).

"Here in America, and especially here tonight, we need to remember two basic truths," Archbishop Chaput said.

"Here’s the first truth," he said. "Society has an obligation — and Christians have a Gospel duty — to provide adequate and compassionate support for unwed and abandoned mothers; women facing unintended pregnancies; and women struggling with the aftermath of an abortion. It’s not enough to talk about ‘pro-life politics.’ The label ‘pro-life’ demands that we work to ensure social policies that will protect young woman and families, and help them generously in their need. […]

"Here’s the second truth. Killing an unborn child is never the right answer to a woman’s or society’s problems. Acts of violence create a culture of violence — and abortion is the most intimate form of violence there is. It wounds the woman, it kills the unborn child and it poisons the roots of justice and charity that bind us all into one human family."

"Planned Parenthood is the largest single provider of abortion and family suppression services in the United States," he explained. "This facility in this minority neighborhood should offend every African-American and Latino family, and all of us, because every child lost to abortion here subtracts one more life, one more universe of possibilities and talent, from the future of this community. […] The business of Planned Parenthood is the prevention of the future — and business is good, and very profitable, at the expense of this community."

The archbishop was joined by a niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., Alveda King; Reverend Willard Johnson, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church; and Denver’s Auxiliary Bishop James Conley.

I found this over at Insight Scoop a statement where Sen. Joe Biden says:

"My views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine,"

This reminded me of something that came out during the last presidential campaign cycle in 2004. Sen. Dick Durbin had put out a scorecard called "Evaluating the Votes and Actions of Public Officials from a Catholic Perspective" where each Catholic Senator was suppose to be evaluated against Catholic doctrine and USCCB "full range of issues." It was a quite laughable attempt since it had Kerry at the top with Sen. Santorum towards the bottom. But I decided to look it up again to see where even this heavily biased scorecard placed Sen. Biden.

So Sen "My views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine" Biden gets scored at only 50% by his fellow Catholic Democrat on a scale that was totally relativistic in regard to issues..

Of course as Carl Olson notes the Church’s pro-life teaching is part of the "social doctrine" of the Church.and of course is included in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Though I can understand how the Senator has made this mistake because so many of the social justice types make exactly the same mistake. There is social justice and then there is abortion. There is a false schism that has been created in regards to the Church’s pro-life and pro-marriage teaching and what social justice activists think are only included in this category. As Catholics we can get tired of saying both/and, but we constantly have to repeat it because is constantly applies. Let’s work for the culture of life and at the same time also have a preferential love of the poor. Let’s work to end abortion and be peacemakers. Let’s help mothers choose life when they think this new life is inconvenient and be prudential stewards of the environment that God created for us. Both/And people!

There has been much talk of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Meet the Press appearance where she talked about her being an ardent and practicing Catholic and then went on to try to make the case that the Church’s position on abortion is relatively new. She went on to pick on St. Augustine saying that he said life begins at three months. Well usually they pick on St. Thomas Aquinas for this so I am sure he is glad to have gotten a break this time. As medical science has advanced we now know that life begins at conception. I find it highly ironic that the Church always being labeled as anti-science leaves the definition of the beginning of life to science. Though Ms. Pelosi who supports partial birth abortion won’t be called anti-science for her views as she should be. But hey she said she did a lot of studying on this issue!

Her total misrepresentation has not gone without notice in the Church in America.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput: On the Separation of Sense and State. (Best title of a diocesan pastoral letter ever)

U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities issued a statement of the USCCB’s front page.

Archbishop Wuerl responds.

Archbishop Egan responds.

Nancy Pelosi’s bishop Archbishop Niederauer issued – crickets chirping.

Post updated to included more responses.