Madame Speaker: Anticipating how Pelosi will run the House
George Wesolek, director of the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, has worked with Pelosi and her staff for 21 years. Pelosi’s congressional district encompasses most of the city of San Francisco.
“She’s been very, very helpful on many issues and we disagree strongly on others,” Wesolek said. “And I talk with her very frankly about those.”
... Wesolek said Pelosi was also among those who opposed the first Gulf War in 1991. He recalled marching with her down Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, “arm in arm, leading 5,000 people.”
... “I don’t think she’s a knee-jerk-reaction person,” said Wesolek. “I think she’s very thoughtful.”
He said he gets the sense that Pelosi understands and agrees with the church’s teaching on many fundamental policy issues, but that doesn’t go far enough.
“I think she gets half of Catholic social teaching,” Wesolek said. “The half she gets she does well.”
So if she was, say, reliably pro-life but in favor of the Iraq War and the death penalty would Wesolek similarly laud her “half-Catholic” policy positions? Or is it because she’s reliably liberal on certain policy issues important to the social justice crowd and her “isn’t-it-too-bad” pro-abortion stance is merely an embarrassment? Funny, too, that the half of Church social teaching she is lauded for being in line with is all prudential issues, apparently, while the half she gets wrong is doctrinal and dogmatic.
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Unfortunately, for the Social Justice = Socialism types, it’s not quite as important the percentage of adherance as to whether the “half” they dissent on is the half they themselves overlook. I guarantee that if I mentioned support of defense of our borders out of justice for the American carpenter that can’t afford to work his trade anymore, I would not be seen as getting anything at all except their disdain.
Never mind the disdain garnered if I so much as hinted that the execution of Saddam Hussein just might (shudders) be justified. To Wesolek, and to many others I’m afraid, I would be marked as an “alleged Catholic” with no percentages considered.
“Or is it because she’s reliably liberal on certain policy issues important to the social justice crowd…”
OK…now for the cynic in me…
When I hear “social justice” in relation with government or a government official, I think tax-payer dollars to fund some program.
I wonder how well contacted the Diocese in SF is for receiving grants and such?
Follow the money.
What dreck.
Respect for life from conception to natural death is the sine qua non. All other social justice issues mean precisely nothing if the person isn’t alive to benefit from them, having beenslaughtered in the womb for the sake of comfort and convenience
That warm fuzzy from the archdiocesan spokesman amounts to saying: “When she was good, she was very, very good,” but it reminds us: “and when she was bad, she was horrid.”
You can’t have two masters; God and Satan. Serving Satan’s agenda of torturing and killing God’s children in an act of human sacrifice, is a work of absolute evil which she performs well. I don’t believe people can be half Catholic. You can’t believe and disbelieve at the same time. You can’t believe the Church is an infallible teacher sent to us from God and deliberately work against her teaching for political gain.
Does anyone know if she took our Lord during Mass at Trinity College the other day?
Dom, you said, “Funny, too, that the half of Church social teaching she is lauded for being in line with is all prudential issues, apparently, while the half she gets wrong is doctrinal and dogmatic.”
Well said. Is it not always this way?
It certainly seems that way to me. I’m disgusted with the USCCB constantly giving the Dems a pass because they can check off the boxes on the left of their useless voter’s guide. The prudential issues of welfare, warfare, and wages.
The sanctity of human life, if it doesn’t outweigh all these issues combined, is apparently worthless to both Pelosi and the USCCB.
A Senator(was it Orin Hatch) once described the USCCB as, “the Democratic Party at prayer”.