Joe Biden comme ses candidats pour la Présidentielle, l’archevêque de Denver, Charles Chaput – que les caciques du Parti n’ont pas cru devoir inviter à s’exprimer à la
Convention alors que tant d’autres catholiques l’ont été… –, a confié à l’Associated Press quelques réflexions sur le sénateur du Delaware et Vice Président choisi par
Obama pour son “ticket”, que l’International Herald Tribune a publiées dans son édition d’hier.
J’ai déjà parlé, ici notamment, du choix de ce catholique par Obama et du “catholicisme” de Joe Biden. Loin de moi l’idée de nier l’appartenance de Biden
par son baptême à l’Église catholique ou de prétendre qu’il ne croit en rien. Je ne voudrais pas me retrouver dans la situation inconfortable dont il a menacé en 2005 certains de ses adversaires
politiques : « Le prochain Républicain qui ose prétendre que je ne suis pas croyant, je lui fais avaler mon chapelet ! ». Biden semble pratiquer la prière du chapelet – ou en tous les
cas en posséder un [1] –, pour aussi surprenant que la chose paraisse, et il est un pratiquant dominical régulier dans sa paroisse de St. Joseph on the Brandywine à Greenville (Delaware)
toute proche de sa résidence. Le problème c’est qu’il y communie aussi régulièrement sans qu’on lui refuse la communion [2].
Biden prétendait en 2007 que « ses opinions [étaient] parfaitement cohérentes avec la doctrine sociale de l’Église ». C’est sans doute vrai sur certaines questions sociales, mais
c’est absolument faux, répond Mgr Chaput, quant à la question de la défense de la vie qui conditionne toutes les autres. Certes, déclare Mgr Chaput, Biden « a manifesté
de remarquables qualités dans sa carrière politique. Mais l’ensemble de ses soutiens aux soit disant “droits” à l’avortement, même s’ils sont parfois tempérés, est gravement erroné. Je n’ai pas
de doute à supposer sa bonne volonté et son intégrité, et je suppose que son intégrité le conduira à s’abstenir de se présenter à la communion dès lors qu’il soutient un faux “droit” à
l’avortement ». Mgr Chaput espère pouvoir rencontrer, à titre privé – comme il l’a déjà fait avec le sénateur McCain – Joe Biden. Espérons qu’il sera alors plus
convaincant que l’ancien évêque de Wilmington…
[1] En 1968, quand il dut subir une intervention chirurgicale suite à un très grave anévrisme, il demanda aux médecins s’il pouvait glisser son chapelet sous son oreiller…
[2] Dans son commentaire à mon article du 23 août, Olivier, que je remercie, précise que l’ordinaire de Wilmington n’est plus Mgr Michael Saltarelli, ce en quoi il a raison puisque
l’évêque est émérite depuis le 7 juillet et que Rome a nommé, pour le remplacer, Mgr William F. Molooly qui sera officiellement installé ce 8 septembre. Toutefois, Mgr Saltarelli,
qui a été pendant son épiscopat plutôt actif dans la défense de la culture de vie, s’il a bien discuté avec Biden de ses positions pro-avortement en contradiction avec l’Enseignement de
l’Église – cf.
aucune information que le curé de St. Joseph, Msgr Joseph F. Rebman, qui connaît bien Biden, lui ait refusé la communion.
The Arrogance of Nancy Pelosi
Listen To It!
Let’s go to Pelosi. This was on Meet the Press yesterday. I want you
to hear this, and we’ll comment after it. Tom Brokaw said, “Senator
Obama saying the question of when life begins is above his ‘pay grade,’
when whether you’re looking at it ‘scientifically or theologically,’ if
he were to come and say, ‘Help me out here Madam Speaker,’ what would
you tell him?”
As an ardent practicing Catholic, uh, this is an issue that I have
studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the
doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition, and,
uh, Senator — uh, I’m — Senator — Uh, St. Augustin’ (sic) said at
three months. We don’t know. The point is is that it shouldn’t have
an impact on a woman’s right to choose. Roe v. Wade talks about very
clear definitions of when the child — uh, eh, er, first trimester,
certain considerations second trimester, not so third trimester. The —
the — there’s very clear distinctions.
RUSH: You know, folks,
this is just embarrassing. As I’ve often wondered, is she genuinely
this uneducated, uninformed, silly, stupid, whatever — and I’ve
concluded there isn’t a word to describe the status of her brain. The
Catholic Church doesn’t know? The Catholic Church hasn’t stipulated?
The “doctors” at the Catholic Church? You mean the pope goes and
consults the doctors to find out when life begins? Really? The doctors
have more to say than God-d? I mean, Nancy, cite anybody. Don’t cite
the Catholic Church. You’re putting them in an untenable position.
You’re fixing it so every priest, no matter how wacko left the priest
might be, cannot support you. Good grief, ladies and gentlemen! Life
begins at conception. Where else can it begin?
Peggy Noonan
had a great way — I’m going to have to paraphrase what she wrote — of
reducing this to its most simple, its most elemental. If life doesn’t
begin at conception, then why the hell wear a condom? If life doesn’t
begin at conception, then why the hell take the pill? Well, the church
doesn’t allow the pill. I know the church doesn’t allow the pill
because life begins at conception — and the church is not cool on
condoms, either, logoed or otherwise. But that’s the point. This is
not something that we’ve been arguing about for centuries. St.
Augustine said life begins at three months? St. Augustine knew that
Roe v. Wade was going to come along and basically say the same thing?
Ed Morrissey, writing at the Hot Air blog, has done yeoman’s research
into this.
He writes today: “The notion that the Catholic
Church declared abortion a sin at the same time as the Pill is patently
absurd, and shows that Pelosi has either lied about studying the issue
in terms of Church history or lied about what she found. Church
writings specifically naming abortion as murder appear as early as 70
AD in the Didache, the first written catechism of the Christian church:
… ‘Tertullian, sometimes known as the Father of the Latin Church,
wrote with equal clarity and force: “In our case, a murder being once
for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while
as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body
for its sustenance.'” This is AD 179, the year 179, following year 70.
“The Catholic catechism is extremely clear on the nature of its
position on human life, and has been remarkably consistent on this
point for almost 2,000 years, and it finds that position in the Old
Testament. Human life begins at conception, not at birth, and not at
some point consistent with Roe for convenience.
Psalm 51, David refers to his sinfulness beginning at the moment of
conception, and sinfulness requires physical life and a soul to exist.”
So there you have it in the Old Testament. The Catholic Church has not
thrown the Old Testament under the bus, the last time I looked. This
is a giant embarrassment, or ought to be. Where’s Brokaw? Where is the
media on this?
She got away with this kind of inane, insane rambling,
trying to fit one of the most sacred religious beliefs held by
Catholics all over the world into a political issue that would conform
with a rogue Supreme Court decision called Roe v. Wade in 1973. Now,
that is hubris. That is arrogance like I cannot believe. She has
placed herself above the doctors of the church, above “St. Augustin,”
as she said. She has placed herself above the pope and everything the
Catholic Church has ever said about this. And of course Brokaw just
sits there, “Heh, heh, heh. Oh. Good.” Well, that’s not entirely
true. Brokaw did challenge her on this. I have to be honest. It’s
with the natural gas business that he just sat there. He said, “But
wait a minute, the Catholic Church at the moment feels strongly that
life begins at the point of conception.”
PELOSI: (mumbling) And
this is, like, 50 years or something like that. So again, over the
history, uh, of the church, this is an issue of, uh, controversy.
No, it’s not an issue of controversy in the church. It’s an issue of
controversy with the followers, with the parishioners, with the flock
like you. Note the 50 years. I’ve always said, “A person’s historical
perspective begins with the day they were born.” So her use of 50
years there, “Well, it’s been a bone of contention, a controversy in
the church for 50 years,” meaning her adult life. That’s what she is
relating it all to. Th-th-th– (sigh) I’m sorry to stutter, folks. I’m
in stunned bewilderment and disbelief over what I consider to be not
just stupidity and silliness but arrogance and hubris, and the
ignorance that these people have over how this kind of comment is going
to come back and bite her presidential nominee. I guess she thinks
that she has to provide some sort of Democrat Party interpretation of
Catholicism that permits Obama to get away with his infanticide belief.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, look, don’t misunderstand
me on this, folks. You’ve got a lot of liberal politicians who, for
their own purposes, from Mario Cuomo to John Kerry to any number of
them, will twist the Catholic Church’s doctrine abortion to fit their
own personal desires to attach firmly the Democrat political policy
dogma and this sort of thing. The way Cuomo did it, he did it at Notre
Dame University, he went to Notre Dame University, and he said, “Of
course I understand the sanctity of life, I’m pro-life and so forth,
but I cannot impose my political will, my religious views on people. I
cannot impose my religious views on the rest of the country.” Yet he
was perfectly comfortable imposing his tax views on the rest of the
country and every other view he had. But it was just a cop-out to
allow him to remain pure to Democrat policy. But neither Cuomo nor
Kerry nor any of the others has ever come along and spoken for the
Catholic Church like Pelosi did yesterday on Meet the Depressed.
That’s the arrogance and hubris. I don’t care whether she said the
Catholic Church’s doctors or doctrines, some people say she might have
been saying “doctrines,” doesn’t matter. She was speaking for the
Catholic Church, and that’s brazen. This is going to come back to
bite. The, quote, unquote, third most powerful woman in the United
States of America telling the world what the Catholic Church’s official
position on life is, the church cannot let this stand. How they deal
with it, we’ll just have to wait and see.
RUSH: Joseph in Palm Coast, Florida, it’s great to have you on the program, sir.
CALLER: Hi.
RUSH: This place was in the path of Fay. You guys got a lot of rain up there, right?
CALLER: Turned off. Hi.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: I’m a former Catholic priest and a Jesuit, and —
RUSH: Wait a minute. You have to educate me. What’s a former Catholic priest?
CALLER: I was dispense bid Pope Paul VI about 35 years ago from the automations of the priesthood.
RUSH: I see. Okay.
CALLER: But I’m still a priest, and times of emergency I can absolve from sin when someone’s in danger of death.
RUSH: I see. Last rites.
CALLER:
Yeah. Yeah. But as to the theology, listening to Pelosi, she is
misrepresenting what the Catholic church teaches. For one thing, the
theologians don’t teach what the Catholic Church teaches unless it’s
accepted by the church.
RUSH: I know.
CALLER: St. Augustine —
RUSH: You can go to Catholic encyclopedia, you can go anywhere you want. This is just a flat-out expedient political lie.
CALLER: Right, but people don’t know that, the people don’t know how the church works.
RUSH:
Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait. Just a second here, Joseph.
Catholics know it, and there are a lot of them, and the Democrats are
going to need ’em, and that’s one of the reasons they put Biden on the
ticket, ’cause he’s a Catholic.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: But this isn’t going to fly. The Catholics know what’s what.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH:
They may get mad at the pope now and then, but Nancy Pelosi is not
going to be accepted as redefining church doctrine no matter what their
political points of view are.
CALLER: I don’t know. Some
people might go along with her, but she’s misleading the public about
where the church’s teaching comes from. The pope —
RUSH: She’s not “misleading.” She’s lying!
CALLER: Okay. If you want to say that.
RUSH: I do want to say that.
You know, Jesus Christ would not start a church that would lead men
into error. That’s why the pope is “infallible in matters of faith and
morals,” and you can’t make an error when he officially teaches the
Catholic doctrine. He can’t make an error. He can’t tell people
something that’s going to lead them into error. And when the council
defines something, it must first have the approval of the pope before
it becomes official —
RUSH: Exactly.
CALLER: — Catholic doctrine.
RUSH:
And the pope, as we all know, is not Nancy Pelosi. And we know that
Pelosi would never be the pope. The question is, Pope Benedict is
going to hear about this if he hasn’t. He cares. He’s the pope. He
cares about the Catholic Church. The most powerful woman in the United
States of America has just lied about his church. Something has to
happen here at some point. I don’t know what. I don’t know what steps
publicly the Catholic Church takes in a situation like this. But the
first thing that is going to happen is, American Catholics are going to
hear about it on this program, just like we have not forgotten, do you
know that the Drive-By Media nowhere, no place, no how, has played
Barack Obama when the cameras had shut down in Chester, Virginia, last
week, praising China and its infrastructure? That has not made it to
the Drive-Bys. It will, and if it doesn’t m
ake it to the Drive-Bys
it’s going to make it to the American people because we’re not going to
let go of that, just like we’re not going to let go of this.
This
is not just about abortion. This is about the hubris, brazen arrogance
of a foolish, dangerous woman who as Speaker of the House is on a
mission total folly; making a mockery of not only sacred beliefs, but
common sense and intelligence on a daily basis. This is the woman who
said that Obama is “a gift from God.” His leadership and talents are a
gift from God. So if that’s how they’re going to appeal to the values
voters and if they want to bring abortion up, if they want to bring it
up in this campaign we’re going to welcome it. We will welcome them
bringing it up again. They cannot win on this, no matter how they fool
themselves. The American people did not vote Roe v. Wade. A bunch of
liberal judges on the Supreme Court wearing black robes did it, and the
American people have never had their say on it. And this is another
way liberals fool themselves into thinking they are the majority, when
they are not.
• Human Events: Obama in His Own Words: There Is No Doubt He Supported Infanticide