It seems to be the trendy thing to do. One the one hand, we have a Catholic leader who denies that Nazi Germany killed six million Jews. At the same time, there’s a group of Catholics that denies that almost 50 million pre-born children have been killed in the US alone.

George Neumayr has this excellent piece in which he draws out the comparison. It is a tragedy that anyone would deny the historical fact that six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany. (Unfortunately, many more were killed in Communist Russia.) But as Neumayr points out, it’s even worse to deny what is actually happening now and to support it at the same time, which is exactly what Speaker Pelosi and her cadre do now when it comes to the abortion holocaust.

Neumayr notes the irony of holocaust denier Speaker Pelosi seeking an audience with the Pope. While she got her audience, I’m glad that it was used apparently as a teaching moment.

Regarding the Speaker’s spin/official statement, Neumayr writes:

Global warming? The last time I recall Benedict broaching the subject of global warming he pointedly observed that environmentalists need a “human ecology” with which to stop killing unborn babies.

Well, it appears that Notre Dame University is still somewhat confused about its Catholic identity. When considering who could possibly be invited to address the graduates of one of the most prestigious universities in the country, some of whom will hopefully be Catholic leaders, the university thought it would be good to invite President Obama, a politician who has one of the most extreme pro-abortion/anti-life records of any politician, if not the most extreme.

I weighed for National Review Online’s symposium on the matter.

You can take action here.

Bishop D’Arcy released a statement announcing that he will not be attending the commencement ceremony. You can read it here.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had a meeting on Wednesday with Pope Benedict XVI. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall or a mouse in the corner, but we’ve got this…

The Vatican issued a statement about the meeting between the Pope and Speaker Pelosi. You may recall that she had a rather odd idea of the Church’s teaching regarding abortion. I wrote about it here. She tripped over her words but insisted that the Church has been debating this for years and that she’s an expert in the topic. More recently, she proposed contraception as a solution to economic woes. Presumably, she considers children a drain on the economy, at least until they make enough to pay taxes.

I have to admit that I spent some time joking with friends about how this meeting might go. When I suggested that the Pope give her a copy of the Catechism, a friend added that it should have the more important parts hi-lighted. National Review Online has this spoof which is in the same vein, only much more developed.

Everyone makes mistakes, but something as public as the Speaker’s statements on abortion, contraception, and her own understanding of Catholicism demands correction in the same public level. It would be one thing if she were to say that she disagrees with the Church’s teaching, but what she claims is the teaching of the Church is absolutely wrong. Imagine her reaction if one of her Democratic colleagues started to go against the party platform or even the stimulus bill.

For more on the Speaker’s visit with the Pope, John Allen has this analysis and there are many news reports like this one.

Meanwhile, North Dakota passed legislation defining the fertilized egg as having all the rights of a person. This is a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade in which the court based its decision on the findings, or lack thereof, namely that the court did not know when life begins.