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A Catholic cannot believe in what the church teaches and accept that the taking of a human life through abortion is just a choice, said an American bishop in a veiled, but clear reference to the speaker of the U.S. House of Represenatives.In a March 1 column entitled “There are just and unjust choices – a church teaching helps,” Bishop Robert Vasa made a distinction between a choice, an unjust choice and a just choice, in challenging the view that abortion is unassailable as personal decision. The column appeared in that date’s issue of the Catholic Sentinel, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., and the Diocese of Baker.
“The direct, intentional taking of the life of an innocent human being is inhumane and unjust. It is not just a choice,” the bishop wrote.
While not identifying her by name, Bishop Vasa took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
He noted that “some months ago a prominent Catholic public person, described as faithful to the church, was asked if being pro-choice or pro-abortion was an issue which conflicted with the Catholic faith.”
In an October 2006 Newsweek interview, reporter Eleanor Clift asked Pelosi whether with “a Catholic background … was embracing choice an issue with your family.”
Her response, quoted by Bishop Vasa in his letter, was: “To me it isn’t even a question. God has given us a free will. We’re all responsible for our actions. If you don’t want an abortion, you don’t believe in it, [then] don’t have one. But don’t tell somebody else what they can do in terms of honoring their responsibilities.”
Yet, the bishop called “categorically impossible for the same person to state that he or she believes simultaneously both what the Catholic Church teaches and that abortion is just a choice.”
“What we believe must inform what we do,” he added.
The bishop also pointed to a comment by “a close relative” that “the choice to have an abortion or not to have an abortion had no moral component whatsoever. ‘They were just choices.’”
In a Jan. 17 San Francisco Chronicle article about the speaker’s daughter, 36-year-old Alexandra Pelosi was quoted as saying that in her 12 years in San Francisco, Calif., Catholic schools, "we were taught just to accept people, that was just a given. … I don't ever remember being told at Convent of the Sacred Heart that gay was wrong. They never even told us there was anything wrong with abortion. They were just choices.”
“It seems to me,” Bishop Vasa said, “there are just choices and there are unjust choices.”
“Choices would be the preference for chocolate ice cream over vanilla ice cream or sherbet instead of ice cream. That is just a choice,” he said. “A just choice would be to choose to pay a fair and living wage to employees as opposed to simply meeting the mandatory standard of minimum wage laws.”
Abortion “is not just a choice and it is not a just choice,” the bishop said. “It is an unjust choice which is diametrically opposed to the clear and consistent teaching of the Catholic Church as well as to the clear and consistent teaching of God himself in the Ten Commandments.”
“If I truly believe,” Bishop Vasa said, “then my actions must be consistent with what I profess to believe.”
“My action must also defend what I believe,” he added.
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