Sound of Silence

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was honored on Thursday by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), who celebrated the Speaker with one of two annual Champions of Women’s Health Awards.

From Lifesite

In a statement, PP lauds Pelosi for having been “instrumental” in the passage of the federal health care bill, which was strenuously opposed by every major pro-life organization in the U.S., as well as the U.S. Catholic bishops, because of its abortion mandate. The statment also praises Pelosi for having “led her female colleagues in Congress as they stood strong against attempts to insert the Stupak abortion ban into the bill.”

“With their steadfast commitment to passing health care reform and making sure that women will be able to get the health care they need, the women leaders we honor today set the course to change the lives of millions of women for generations to come,” said PP President Cecile Richards.

We also learned within the last week that the Obama administration authorized federal taxpayer funding of abortions under high risk insurance programs created under the new national health care plan President Barack Obama signed. So far this funding has been found for three states by the National Right to Life Committee. Isn’t it great to have Catholic Kathleen Sebelius as head of Health and Human Services.

Planned Parenthood is of course correct to honor Rep. Nancy “Ardent Catholic” Pelosi for all she had done to help murder children and to direct business to Planned Parenthood.

Bishop Niederauer the Archbishop of San Francisco was outraged by one of his flock receiving and deserving such an honor by Planned Parenthood and issued a blazing and clear statement about how you can’t be a good Catholic and pro-abortion. Now where was the link to that statement? Oh wait I must of dreamed that one – wishful thinking perhaps. The reality is that the Bishop has not mentioned Nancy Pelosi since he joined a bunch of other Bishops in condemning her using St. Thomas Aquinas to support abortion back in August of 2008. Since then she has issued equally ignorant statements and continued to talk about herself being a devout Catholic while ramming through the horrific health care bill.

Bishops certainly don’t have to go nuclear in the case of pro-abotion politicians and there is certainly a wide degree of prudence at the disposal of bishops concerning their flock. Certainly there must come a point when you admit that all attempts have failed and his meeting with Nancy Pelosi was to no avail. In the USCCB’s commentary on Matthew 18:15-20:

Passing from the duty of Christian disciples toward those who have strayed from their number, the discourse now turns to how they are to deal with one who sins and yet remains within the community. First there is to be private correction (Matthew 18:15); if this is unsuccessful, further correction before two or three witnesses (Matthew 18:16); if this fails, the matter is to be brought before the assembled community (the church), and if the sinner refuses to attend to the correction of the church, he is to be expelled (Matthew 18:17). The church’s judgment will be ratified in heaven, i.e., by God (Matthew 18:18).

As an Armchair Bishop my pronouncements on the acts of bishops does not matter much if at all. It just seems to me that the majority of bishops just never get to the 2nd and especially the 3rd step of the Matthew 18 guide. Nancy Pelosi flagrant opposition to her Catholic faith and obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin deserves more of an action then thus far has occurred. It appears that her medicinal correction for her support of abortion is silence. This is the Spanish Inquisition as imagined by Monty Python. “Fetch the Comfy Chair!” It is of course not that I want Nancy Pelosi punished for her support of abortion, I love her enough to want her to repent and to be within full communion of the Church and I don’t see how silence by her shepherd helps her.

In light of this silence I suggest a new Coat of Arms for Archbishop Niederauer.

You don’t have to be an expert in Ecclesiastical heraldry to figure this one out.

Thanks via Twitter to Fr. Joseph for the Latin translation of “Sound of Crickets.” Thanks also to Infornoxv, FrCharles, and KathlinGilbert for also replying.