Even after being corrected by Catholic bishops and Pope Benedict XVI himself, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—a self-proclaimed “practicing Catholic,” hard-core abortion supporter, and one of the one most powerful people in government—has once again distorted Catholic teaching to the masses. This time, the offense landed in the pages of Newsweek magazine.

For the last few months, Pelosi has made it clear that her priority is to push tax payer-funded abortion coverage in the healthcare bill, meaning she wants you and me to pay for abortions that we are morally opposed to. She failed to do that in the House version of the bill when the Stupak amendment stripped abortion coverage from the bill. Now that the bill has passed in the Senate WITH the abortion funding, it will go to conference committee, where the two bills will be poked and prodded until they come up with some kind of compromise of what the final bill will look like. Pelosi is standing firm to her stance that tax payer-funded abortion coverage should stay in the final bill.

That doesn’t sound very Catholic to me, but here’s what Pelosi had to say when Newsweek asked about the controversy:

“I have some concerns about the church's position respecting a woman's right to choose. I have some concerns about the church's position on gay rights. I am a practicing Catholic, although they're probably not too happy about that. But it is my faith. I practically mourn this difference of opinion because I feel what I was raised to believe is consistent with what I profess, and that is that we are all endowed with a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will.”

It doesn’t get any better when she’s asked about her obligations as a “practicing Catholic” vs. public official.

“When I speak to my archbishop in San Francisco and his role is to try to change my mind on the subject, well then he is exercising his pastoral duty to me as one of his flock. When they call me on the phone here to talk about, or come to see me about an issue, that's a different story. Then they are advocates, and I am a public official, and I have a different responsibility.”

Elizabeth Lev hits it right on the money when she writes in her column “Nancy Pelosi, Catholic Without A Clue”:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems to be planning a second career as a theologian. Unfortunately, she never gets one Catholic fact right…

…Had Pelosi chosen to do a minimum of research before speaking, she might have consulted the users' manual for the Catholic Church, the Catechism, which some American bishop or other must have sent her as a stocking-stuffer this year. There our aspiring theologian would have found a different definition. Freedom, according to the Catholic Church, (CCC article 3) is the person's ability to choose between good and evil. He can choose to do something good or something evil but he cannot choose to make evil good. To take responsibility for one's actions is to recognize that one has chosen evil and to accept the consequences both in this world and the next.

Merry belated Christmas! It’s almost a week ago that we celebrated Christmas, hopefully with friends and family, or at least people that we like a little bit. Since we’re still in the Christmas liturgical season, which ends Epiphany Sunday, Jan. 3, I wanted to take a moment and remember the greatest pro-life story ever told.

Consider Mary, an unmarried teenager who found herself pregnant in a time when a scandal like that would earn her a death by stoning. Amid pressure from her family and community, she has faith, keeps the baby, and the rest is our grateful and joyful history.

If you want more pro-life Christmas reflection, here’s an excerpt from the Lifenews.com article “Do You See What I See? Christmas Reminds Pro-Life People Unborn Have Value.”

“…Jesus healed out of a deep well of empathy and compassion. He restored many whose bodies, hearts, and souls were weighed down with terrible physical and emotional burdens. But he was also teaching us a timeless lesson: unless we are willing to open our eyes, we, too, will be blind to the hurting around us.

While it is not my intention to idealize pro-lifers, it would be false modesty to ignore that they demonstrate a tremendous capacity to truly ‘see’ what others either cannot, or choose not, to see. It is no accident that pro-lifers defend unborn babies. Love and concern for the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the marginalized is what gives their lives a rich unity of purpose.

The great hope of the pro-life movement is that despite our nation's descents into inhumanity and indifference, the self-image of Americans is deservedly of a good people, blessed in a unique way. And it is because Americans are fundamentally decent people that the significance of the debate over partial-birth abortion cannot be exaggerated…”

The Catholic Pro-life Committee’s blog, Chronicles of the CPLC (the blog you’re reading right now), was nominated for the 2009 Pro-Life Blog Awards this past month. That’s really cool considering American Life League (ALL) sponsored the competition.

We didn’t win, but we were pretty excited about being nominated in the Pro-Life Instigator Award for Activism and Pro-Life Unity Award categories.

Thanks for taking the time to read along! Happy blogging.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is known more for keeping “Christ” out of Christmas in the courtrooms and in the press than sending warm holiday fuzzies via Facebook. But that’s exactly what ACLU of Texas Executive Director Terri Burke tried to do with this video. We’re all allowed to share in the Christmas spirit, right?

Let’s take a look at some of the more contradictory, err…interesting clips from the 3:08 greeting. (Sorry, you have to be logged into Facebook to see the video.)

Terri Burke:

“That might seem a little odd, even ironic, that the executive director of the ACLU of Texas is wishing you a Merry Christmas. That’s maybe because there seem to be a lot of mis-statements, a lot of myths about what we believe here at the ACLU about Christmas…

“…We’re looking forward to a new year where we hope Santa would have granted us our holiday wishes. First and foremost, we hope that all Americans will be able to practice their religion and worship as they please. We hope for a Texas where all Texans have educational opportunities, and most of all, we hope for a nation that adheres to and respects the most basic and fundamental of American values.”

1. Hmm, what exactly are those basic, fundamental values? The right to life? Um, no.

Not exactly, considering the ACLU of Texas put their support behind a bill that would make it easier to justify killing an infant during the spring 2009 state session. The bill (HB 3318) never got out of the House Committee, no thanks to the ACLU.

Session documents show that an ACLU Texas representative registered the organization as “For” the bill on April 14, 2009. Those who signed in as “Against” the bill were Citizens Commission on Human Rights, Texans for Family Values PAC, Parent Guidance Center and the Free Market Foundation.

2. Terri Burke is right about one thing. It IS odd that the ACLU is sending out this message about being able to worship as you please. Elsewhere in the country, the ACLU fought to ban a cross displayed on a water tower in Pennsylvania (a town tradition) but protected cross-burning in Virginia.

We could go on, but it doesn’t take much to show that they’re on the naughty list this year.

While the health care bill is being debated in the Senate right now, I thought this would be a good time to recap where in the process the bill is, and if it passes the Senate, where it still has to go.

Regardless of whether the bill passes or not, the goal is to do all we can to make sure funding for abortion, euthanasia and “family planning” (i.e. condoms and other contraceptives) is not part of anything that we call a “health care plan.”

Last major vote: The House passed the health care bill on November 7. This happened late Saturday night as it was beginning to look like it wouldn’t happen at all. The mood changed when the House approved an amendment from pro-life Rep. Bart Stupak that stripped abortion funding from the bill. This was what some pro-life Representatives were holding out for before voting yes on the bill.

Final Vote: 240 to 194

So, is that it?
No. Let’s remember our School House Rock days of how that little bill goes to Capitol Hill.

1. There are two voting decision-making groups in Washington – the House and the Senate.

2. When a bill is introduced, each group gets a copy of the bill.

3. Within the House and Senate, members can change the original bill as much as they want.

4. The two groups can make similar changes in their bill if they choose, but they don’t have to.

5. All the changes stay within the group that they were made (i.e. changes made in the House bill don’t get change in the Senate and vice versa).

6. In the end, everyone votes on whether the bill will pass from their group or not.

7. If the bill passes one group with all the changes, that does not necessarily mean it will get a vote of pass from the other group. (Purple star: This is where we are right now with the health care bill. The House has passed the health care bill, but the Senate is still working on their copy of it. ) CLICK ON THE CHART TO MAKE IT LARGER

Building on the momentum of the just-finished 40 Days-Dallas vigil at Robinson's abortion center on Record Crossing Rd, and in light of the opening of the new Southwestern late-term abortion center, we have decided not to wait until next spring or fall to hold the next 40 Days for Life-Dallas Prayer Vigil.

Channel 8 covered our November 7 Memorial Prayer service to remember all the lives that were taken at Fairmount abortion center. Fairmount was the first abortion center in Texas to open its doors legally after the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973.

The man behind Fairmount
Abortionist Dr. Curtis Boyd, who said “By providing abortion services, we are in fact helping to make the world a better place,” was in charge of the Fairmount center and has since moved the facility to a new building at 8616 Greenville Ave in north Dallas to perform late-term abortions. A 22-year-old woman died in Boyd’s care in 1991. He has since admitted to Channel 8 that he has performed 300,000 abortions by his own hand since 1973.