Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, recently talked about faith and justice at Georgetown University. She recalled her Catholic upbringing and how she was raised to see that everyone has the spark of the Divine within him. It was a few days after Judge Kyle Duncan listened to Stanford Law students heckle him, saying that they hoped that his daughters would be raped, simply because the protesters disagreed with his Catholic beliefs. An assistant dean at the school insisted that Duncan’s mere presence was causing “harm” to students. The assistant dean was suspended after that, and both the president of Stanford and the dean of the law school apologized to Duncan. If Pelosi is serious, perhaps she could help lead a national intervention, starting with those law students who can’t fathom conversation and debate.
The problem is, I’m not sure the former speaker is serious. Not in such a way that we could honestly try to hash out what is means to live Catholic social teaching in the world today. If she were, she would not dismiss her bishop for his concerns about her support for not just legal abortion but its expansion. What do we owe the unborn? Yes — what do we owe women? — but what about their children? Repeatedly during the Georgetown event, Pelosi cited her advocacy for children. I honestly would like to meet her there. Imagine if we could come together to help children who need forever families. What if we could actually help single mothers who want to raise their children but are facing every kind of pressure to abort their child? But Pelosi is derisive toward anyone who talks about abortion, using her credential as a mother and grandmother as her bludgeon.
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