Come Again? NYT Headline: 'In Pelosi, Strong Catholic Faith and Abortion Rights Coexist'

The New York Times' Jennifer Steinhauer celebrated the faith of the fiercely pro-abortion former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California on Tuesday, under a laugher of a headline, "At Divisive Moment, Pelosi’s Faith Coexists With Belief in Abortion Rights." The online headline was even "stronger" in silliness: "In Pelosi, Strong Catholic Faith and Abortion Rights Coexist."

Steinhauer strove mightily to portray left-wing pro-choice, pro-gay marriage Pelosi as an unconflicted Catholic, despite her position on abortion, considered a mortal sin by the Church but which Pelosi sees as "ancillary to her unwavering faith," according to the Times. Steinhauer portrayed the abortion issue as an unwelcome distraction, a skunk at the party of the Pope's American arrival.

For Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, the issue of abortion rights has always been ancillary to her unwavering faith and deep approbation for generations of popes. “I actually agree with the pope on more issues than many Catholics who agree with him on one issue,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview in her office at the Capitol last week.

But that one issue, abortion, is adding a thick layer of tension to the otherwise convivial mood as Congress prepares for the arrival of Pope Francis this week. The Capitol is ensnared in an imbroglio over funding for Planned Parenthood and a host of other abortion-related fights that could lead to a government shutdown next week.

And about that Planned Parenthood controversy, which has resulted in bills in the House and Senate to chip away at federal funding for the abortion provider:

Ms. Pelosi is not impressed.

....

For Ms. Pelosi, who has led Democrats in the House for more than a decade, abortion and family planning access -- as important proxies for women’s rights -- are core values central to her party’s platform and base. Opposing abortion rights, and reframing women’s health care as having nothing to do with family planning, is just as important to many congressional Republicans.

....

A focus on trying to dismantle Planned Parenthood -- a fiscal strategy doomed to fail with President Obama in the White House -- against the backdrop of a visit from the pope detracts somewhat from an otherwise largely unifying visit from a highly popular international figure.

For Ms. Pelosi, the notion of disagreeing with other Catholics about abortion has not weighed on her sense of faith. “I think everyone grants everyone their position,” she said. “The church has their position, and we have ours, which is that a woman has free will given to her by God. My family is very pro-life,” she added, noting that she has lived with the conflict all her life.

Steinhauer kept the details of Pelosi's Catholic cultural heritage coming.

Like Speaker John A. Boehner, Ms. Pelosi was born into a large Catholic family, for which faith was central and reverence for the pope assured. Her father, Thomas J. D’Alesandro Jr., was the first Italian-American mayor of Baltimore and a member of the House, and was prominent in the larger American Roman Catholic community.

Ms. Pelosi keeps a folder in her office with photos and news clips memorializing her encounters with popes over the years, including an elegant black-and-white photograph of her in the eighth grade, dressed in white, during a visit to Rome with her family in the 1950s to see Pope Pius XII.

Steinhauer let Pelosi portray herself as a Pope groupie without any challenging questions on theology or moral issues, only cloying vignettes of the former House Speaker "curling up with a copy of the latest encyclical from Pope Francis and a pen, to take notes."

As a young woman in New York, Ms. Pelosi lined up with New Yorkers on the street in 1965 when Pope Paul VI became the first sitting pope to visit the Western Hemisphere. “I even, as a young person, waved to Pope Paul VI in Manhattan when I lived there,” she said.

....

“I loved Benedict’s writing and his speeches,” said Ms. Pelosi, who carefully reads each encyclical with the rapt attention of a serious cook who devours every issue of “Bon Appétit.” Her personal favorite is “God is love,” she said. “It is so beautiful.” She curled up with a copy of the latest encyclical from Pope Francis and a pen, to take notes.

The Times previously celebrated an Emily's List endorsed Democrat as a "devout Roman Catholic."

Come Again? NYT Headline: 'In Pelosi, Strong Catholic Faith and Abortion Rights Coexist'

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