Pelosi To Meet With San Francisco Archbishop To Discuss Church Teachings

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 09 Sep 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday accepted an invitation to meet privately with San Francisco's Roman Catholic Archbishop George Niederauer to discuss the Catholic Church's position on abortion rights following comments Pelosi made on Aug. 24 on NBC's "Meet the Press," the AP/Washington Examiner reports. During the appearance, Pelosi, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, said that "doctors of the church" have not been able to define when life begins and that "God has given us, each of us, a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions."

Pelosi in a letter to Niederauer said that she would "welcome the opportunity for our personal conversation and to go beyond our earlier most cordial exchange about immigration and needs of the poor to church teaching on other significant matters." According to the AP/Examiner, although Pelosi's letter said she is interested in speaking about the church's position on other significant issues, it did not specifically mention abortion rights.

Niederauer has said that Pelosi's remarks were in "serious conflict" with church teaching and that it was his duty to clearly explain the church teachings on faith and morals (AP/Washington Examiner, 9/5).

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