Nancy Pelosi on today's Feast of St. Joseph and the 'health care' legislation in Congress:
Let's begin with the sheer sacrilege of Pelosi's statement: Invoking St. Joseph, "Pillar of families", on his feast day to promote a piece of legislation which in no uncertain terms is anti-family because of its radical anti-life elements, including tax-payer funded abortions and lack of conscience protection. Anyone engaging in some semblance of intellectual honesty will agree that there is no doubt about the anti-life nature of this bill: the US Catholic bishops join every major pro-life group in the country in opposition to the bill and provide ample reasoning for their opposition: USCCB Healthcare (see especially "What's Wrong with the Senate Healthcare Bill on Abortion: A Response to Professor Jost"). How quickly Pelosi invokes the Catholic faith when it is politically expedient for her and how quickly she blatantly disregards it in matters of faith and morals!. Sheer hypocrisy, but what else have we come to expect with this woman and 'catholyc' politicians like her?
For a minute let's also consider Pelosi's downright stupidity: Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feast of St. Joseph the worker is on May 1st.
Now something more disconcerting than Pelosi's inability to read a liturgical calendar: this business of certain liberal organizations of religious women publicly defying their bishops and supporting this anti-life 'health care' legislation. As much as Nancy Pelosi and the anti-life liberals want to spin this as the legislation having been granted the seal of approval from the Catholic Church, I think this statement from the USCCB puts things into the right perspective rather succinctly. Also, Thomas Peters at American Papist reports on the counter-statement released by religious women faithful to the Church, her teachings, and her Bishops. Peters points out that this counter-statement represents 103 religious orders, while the original dissenting statement represented only 60 religious orders. Looks like Pelosi was wrong again about "every order that you can think of" being for this anti-life bill (certainly not a piece of 'life affirming legislation' as Pelosi claims).
Finally, Archbishop Chaput of Denver has been heroically speaking the truth on these matters from the start. Some very important articles from the Archbishop (he deserves our gratitude and our prayers):
The Captivity of 'Catholic' Witness
Catholics, healthcare, and the senate's bad bill
St. Joseph, Pray for us!
UPDATE: A couple of great pieces on this from First Things:
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