Monday, January 18, 2010

Nancy Pelosi's "Free Will"

Archbishop George H. Niederauer wrote a piece for the Catholic San Francisco Online Edition correcting Nancy Pelosi's misconception of 'free will'. The House Speaker said in a December interview for Newsweek that women who choose abortion are exercising their free will and that her position on abortion is consistent with her Catholic faith.

Here are two passages from Archbishop Niederauer's article:

"However, human freedom does not legitimate bad moral choices, nor does it justify a stance that all moral choices are good if they are free: “The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything.” (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1740) Christian belief in human freedom recognizes that we are called but not compelled by God to choose constantly the values of the Gospel—faith, hope, love, mercy, justice, forgiveness, integrity and compassion.

It is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching to conclude that our freedom of will justifies choices that are radically contrary to the Gospel—racism, infidelity, abortion, theft. Freedom of will is the capacity to act with moral responsibility; it is not the ability to determine arbitrarily what constitutes moral right."


Read the full article "Archbishop’s Journal – Free Will, Conscience and Moral Choice: What Catholics believe."

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