{"id":1491252,"date":"2022-05-25T08:17:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T12:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1491252"},"modified":"2022-05-25T08:18:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T12:18:18","slug":"a-new-day-why-neither-politicians-nor-clergy-can-hide-from-abortion-any-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-new-day-why-neither-politicians-nor-clergy-can-hide-from-abortion-any-longer\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Day: Why Neither Politicians Nor Clergy Can Hide From Abortion Any Longer"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-new-day-why-neither-politicians-nor-clergy-can-hide-from-abortion-any-longer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1491252&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Archbishop-Salvatore-Cordileone.-Photo-Courtesy-of-the-Archdiocese-of-San-Francisco.-e1653437298151.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>For years, Supreme Court rulings like Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey allowed our leaders to hide. Republicans could campaign against it, rallying their base and decrying its injustice, then once in power make the excuse that, like it or not, Roe was \u201cthe law of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Democrats alike could claim they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2022\/05\/23\/communion-pelosi-catholics-abortion\/\">personally against abortion<\/a>, but believed it was up to the woman. Moreover, they didn\u2019t need to vote much on the issue \u2014 it was already decided; it was \u201cthe law of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even Catholic bishops could shirk confrontation, pointing to those politicians\u2019 dodges and excuses \u2014 and hiding behind the same. No drastic action needed.<\/p>\n<p>Those days are over, thank God. Over the weekend, San Francisco\u2019s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone sent three letters: one to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfarchdiocese.org\/notification-to-the-speaker-of-the-house-of-representatives-of-the-united-states-congress-nancy-pelosi\/\">Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfarchdiocese.org\/letter-to-the-faithful-on-the-notification-sent-to-speaker-nancy-pelosi\/\">to the faithful<\/a> of the archdiocese, and one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfarchdiocese.org\/letter-to-priests-of-the-archdiocese-on-the-notification-sent-to-speaker-nancy-pelosi\/\">to the priests<\/a>. In them, he detailed the difficult decision he\u2019d made to bar the speaker from communion in San Francisco, before repentance and absolution.<\/p>\n<p>The decision, he wrote, came after many years of prayer, and multiple refusals from Pelosi to change her ways or, in the end, even to meet with him. Instead, Pelosi was growing only more vocal in her support for abortion, even citing her Catholic faith as justification and <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/news\/house\/3477577-pelosi-says-roe-opinion-would-threaten-marriage-equality-other-rights\/\">directly challenging<\/a> Pope Francis on the issue. He didn\u2019t seek to punish; only to guide back to the faith.<\/p>\n<p>The partisan reaction to the archbishop\u2019s decision was quick and vicious. The archbishop\u2019s \u201cchief loyalty is not to Christ,\u201d the editorial staff of The San Francisco Chronicle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/editorial-attack-on-nancy-pelosi-should-be-san-francisco-archbishops-final-act-here\/\">squealed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not your job, dude,\u201d Whoopi Goldberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/whoopi-goldberg-does-theology-wrong\/\">claimed<\/a>. \u201cThat is not up to you to make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fight had finally come to a head, and no one suspected it would be easy. Little, however, could be done to avoid it, save simple cowardice.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because for the politicians, the situation had changed dramatically. Texas\u2019s Senate Bill 8 had successfully banned killing a child with a beating heart, convincing Pelosi and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedlieu\/status\/1405977654226931712\">other abortion-supporting politicians<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.speaker.gov\/newsroom\/9221\">speak out more publicly<\/a> than they had before.<\/p>\n<p>Next, the leaked Supreme Court draft frightened Democrats into believing the end of Roe and Casey was nigh. The response was vocal, loud, and immediate. Lone gone were the days of quietly hiding behind \u201cthe law of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the church, things were changing too. The ascendance of two self-professing Catholic politicians who were pro-abortion to the most powerful roles in the world put <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/06\/20\/trying-pressure-biden-catholic-bishops-forget-lessons-jfk\/\">a renewed<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LarrySabato\/status\/1406996341012770829\">urgency<\/a> on American bishops to restate the Catholic Church\u2019s unequivocal position that abortion is a grave evil \u2014 and that secular Catholic leaders absolutely cannot support it.<\/p>\n<p>Since John F. Kennedy, the American church has walked a careful \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/11\/03\/how-60-years-of-church-silence-made-the-most-anti-catholic-party-in-modern-history-possible\/\">or cowardly<\/a> \u2014 line on Catholic political leaders who publicly oppose her teachings, keeping silent to maintain access to power. The vocal politics of Pelosi, President Joe Biden, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, candidate Terry McAuliffe, and others put the rotten fruits of that effort on full display, most heatedly on the subject of human life.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the bishops\u2019 murmurings and meetings, the Vatican released guidance on the matter. While The New York Times and other corporate, leftist outlets <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/06\/16\/how-the-new-york-times-tried-to-intimidate-u-s-catholic-bishops-with-a-false-headline\/\">tried to spin it<\/a> a different way, that guidance urged slow-moving, pastoral care for straying leaders \u2014 followed by public action if the church was ignored.<\/p>\n<p>While for years the peace has held, with Democratic politicians and Catholic bishops both quietly taking cover behind nine black robes, the situation has now changed. This confluence set the stage for Cordileone\u2019s public rebuke of Pelosi; as well as for future confrontations across the country.<\/p>\n<p>With the expected Supreme Court ruling sending abortion policy back to the states and their elected representatives, politicians will be forced to take a stand. Morally ambiguous posturing won\u2019t satisfy pro-abortion voters, or the faithful.<\/p>\n<p>Change won\u2019t come too quickly, or everywhere at once. It\u2019s unlikely, for example, that we\u2019ll see action from the archbishop of Washington, D.C. \u2014 a man selected for the capital in part because of his go-along-get-along permissiveness toward our secular leaders. Already since her archbishop\u2019s ruling, Pelosi has received communion in D.C. Cardinal Wilton Gregory\u2019s diocese, choosing a Georgetown church that\u2019s long been a favorite of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/west-wing-playbook\/2021\/07\/21\/communion-disunion-493677\">pro-abortion<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/news-photo\/kathleen-kennedy-and-ted-kennedy-during-kathleen-kennedys-news-photo\/105840392\">politicians<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Voting for a law expressly forbidden by the pope and his past two successors, however, is a scandal, and less politically charged clergy around the country will feel the pressure to react \u2014 especially as Democrats line up to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/05\/11\/1097980529\/senate-to-vote-on-a-bill-that-codifies-abortion-protections-but-it-will-likely-f\">publicly vote<\/a> for nationally legal abortion.<\/p>\n<p>The Catechism clearly lays out the church\u2019s position. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, hand in hand with the Vatican, laid out how it should properly be publicly handled. The archbishop of San Francisco laid out the tact, grace, prayer, and patience needed \u2014 as well as the supporting documents necessary to communicate the decision to the errant, the clergy, and the faithful. Next up are his colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to hijack the abortion question blunted the moral impetus for secular and religious leaders alike. It allowed for a dishonest debate, and for the left to claim our elected representatives alone have jurisdiction over matters of life and death, while rarely exercising this jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, from both the church pulpit and the bully pulpit, it allowed for cowardice. Soon that may be ending. It might not make for a less contentious time in American life, but it will sure make for a more honest one.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Christopher Bedford is a senior editor at The Federalist, a founding partner of RightForge, vice chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, a board member at The Daily Caller News Foundation and National Journalism Center, and the author of &#8220;The Art of the Donald.&#8221; His work has been featured in The American Mind, National Review, the New York Post and the Daily Caller, where he led the Daily Caller News Foundation and spent eight years. A frequent guest on Fox News and Fox Business, he was raised in Massachusetts and lives across the river from D.C. Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBedfordDC\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For years, Supreme Court rulings like Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey allowed our leaders to hide. Republicans could campaign against it, rallying their base and decrying its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":574,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1491252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1491252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1491252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1491252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1491252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}