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I have been a Catholic all of my life. I do not know how to be anything other than a Christian. I am comfortable with this label and I have tried to learn what it means to be a practicing Catholic Christian. I guess that is why it amazes me when politicians, who also claim to be practicing Catholics, make outrageous statements. Frequently their rants begin with tolerance. I have searched the Bible extensively for the passages about tolerance but can find none. I think that tolerance is probably a good trait to have when it comes to dealing with others but it must be tolerance that is grounded in truth and ethics. Tolerance of evil is never good and should not be accepted. The Catholic Church itself tells us that we do have free will to make our own decisions but the dichotomy is between good and evil, not about cafeteria menu decision making. Nancy Pelosi declared that she is a practicing Catholic and Elizabeth Lev wrote a column about the egregious missteps taken by Mrs. Pelosi during her confessions. One of them centered on her very different idea of free will. Mrs. Pelosi does indeed get confused and thinks that God has given her the power to make moral decisions for all of us as long as she feels they are right. What Catholic Church did she go to growing up? Does she still attend Mass today? I think she is in need of a good spiritual adviser or at the least, a good elementary catechism teacher. The Catholic Church teaches, built on the words of Jesus in the Bible, that abortion is murder. It is the taking of another human life and that is intrinsically evil. I also discovered in the Lev article that Mrs. Pelosi had made a trip to the Vatican in February 2009 and requested a visit with Pope Benedict. Her version of the visit and his deviate greatly. She claims that the conversation centered on global warming and fighting poverty. Pope Benedict released a statement, prior to Mrs. Pelosi's, that stated that the conversation was more instructional in nature. Specifically the release said, "His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development." So the problem here appears to be one of listening. As you know, I am a serious adherent to the epistle of St. James. It would certainly behoove Mrs. Pelosi to spend some quality time with this very Catholic book in the Bible. It is amazing what we can learn just by listening.

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