Home // February 23 2009 > Pope's comments to Pelosi 'intrusive': Kmiec

Make Text Larger Make Text Smaller Email this Article to a Friend Print this Article

Pope's comments to Pelosi 'intrusive': Kmiec

Published: February 23, 2009

Professor KmiecObama backer Pepperdine Professor Douglas Kmiec has described Pope Benedict's comments to Nancy Pelosi as "intrusive" because they put the whole judicial system in an impossible moral dilemma.

Catholic News Agency reports that in his piece in Time magzine Prof. Kmiec implied that the Pope exaggerated or at least did not measure the consequences of his words when he told Nancy Pelosi that "jurists," in addition to legislators, must work "in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."  

According to Kmiec, such a statement "has the potential, at least theoretically, to empty the U.S. Supreme Court of all five of its Catholic jurists, and perhaps all other Catholics who sit on the bench in the lower federal and state courts."


The Pepperdine professor suggests the Pope, instead, could take "a different, less intrusive course," by "continuing to observe the difference between a jurist and a legislator."

"Few are pleased with the abortion jurisprudence as it is," argues Kmiec, but by "imposing moral duties on Catholic jurists that are incompatible with their envisioned judicial role in a democracy," Pope Benedict XVI "is hardly likely to make it better."

Edward Whelan, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and director of its program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture, questioned "whether Kmiec's reading (of the Vatican statement) is actually a careful one."

"For starters, Kmiec assumes that the term 'jurists' is equivalent to 'judges'," Whelan explains, when actually the terms applies to "any person who possesses a degree in law."

The EPPC expert explains that "even if the statement does apply to American judges, all it says is that 'jurists' should 'work in co-operation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.' Kmiec turns this into an "admonition to 'jurists' to undertake an activist, law-changing role. But the statement doesn't compel that reading."

More at Catholic News Agency

 

It may take up to 24 hours for your comment to appear on the website as it will be moderated.
Email is requested for identification purposes only.

Recent Comments

  1. Pope Benedict should be applauded and not chastized by the likes of Professor Kmiec. His liberal, menu concept of the Catholic Church is way out of line. If the Pope's statement to Nancy Pelosi and possible referrence to the U.S. Supreme Court Justices is not up for interpertation. He said like it is:Respect for life from the moment of conception until natural death". If the U.S.A. is affraid of the moral truth then we have a very serious problem, a bigger problem that the economy.

    Posted By: Lois Payne

  2. Dear Douglas, et al:

    Don't you believe that past Supreme Court justices, when ruling on slavery, could have worked "in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."

    Some may have been bigoted, some may have been cowardly, but I wished they had, and in the future, others will listen to the Holy Spirit!

    Amen.

    Posted By: ed

  3. Three cheers for the Pope ! One boo/hiss for Kmiec

    Posted By: Eileen Kovatch

  4. Professor Kmiec doesn't speak like a law professor, he sounds more like a spin meister for Pelosi (Catholic?) Democrats.He shouldn"t be HEADLINED IN CATHOLIC PRESS!! ,
    with anti-papal gibberish.
    What does Catholic News Ageny believe in?????

    Posted By: raymond j rice

  5. "Intrusive" is putting it mildly. This intrusion is arrogant and uninformed about the duties of legislators and "jurists" in a pluralistic, democratic republic governed by a Constitution.

    Catholics need to remember that our leaders serve in the United States' house, senate, and courts, not in Catholic bodies. Thus, they represent and make rules that are congruent with the U. S. Constitution for all the people, including ones with a variety of religious and philosophical views.

    Mr. Kmiec is absolutely correct. If U. S. political leaders will not or cannot play by our rules, let them resign.

    I, for one, would hate to see this happen. I'd rather see the Church and its members understand what Catholic officials must do as public leaders. If this distinction is not made, the only Catholics to willing to take public policy roles would be either single-issue zealots or hypocrites.

    I'd hate to see this Hobson's choice become standard operating procedure.

    Posted By: Ron Bohr

  6. Yes Mr Bohr, Catholic legislators must function within a "pluralistic democratic republic, governed by a constitution"...Is there ANYTHING in that constitution that permits the destruction of one human being at the will of another. Science affirms that child being nourished in her mother's womb is every bit an innocent human being as a child being nourished at a mothers breast. Why do the Democrats continue to deny this truth?

    Posted By: raymond jrice

  7. Mr. Kmiec is the one being intrusive. Our Catholic faith teaches us to respect life, period. If a judge, juror, politician, or anyone else is called on to make choices, whether by voting in an election or hearing a trial, they take with them all life experiences which help them to form their decision. If they are Catholic, naturally, part of their decision is going to be made with the teachings of the Church in mind. The same goes for anyone from a protestant, Islamic, Budhist, etc. religion. We have the American right to form our opinions on our faith. We have the religious responsibility to exercise that right.

    Posted By: Doni Juarez

^ Page Top

Delicious

More from this section

  1. Anti-abuse group leaflets Chicago parish

    Father MaguireSupporters of victims of clergy sexual abuse handed out fliers Sunday calling on parishioners at a Chicago church to learn more about Jesuit priests like defrocked Donald McGuire, who have been convicted of abuse. - Chicago Breaking News

  2. Peace activist Peter DeMott dead after fall

    Peter DeMottPeace activist Peter DeMott, 62, who once rammed a shipyard van into a Trident nuclear submarine, has died in surgery after a fall. - National Cathoilc Reporter

  3. Hawaii's Fr Damien to be canonised

    Father DamienBelgian-born Fr Damien de Veuster, who ministered to leprosy patients in Hawaii, and died of the disease, will be declared a saint on Oct. 11 at a Vatican ceremony presided over by Pope Benedict. - Associated Press

  4. Dolan to New York confirmed

    Archbishop-elect DolanUpdate: The Holy See has announced the appointment of Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the next Catholic archbishop of New York. - Newsday

  5. National Parks mulls future of Fr Damien's home

    KalaupapaThe National Park Service has begun a process that will determine the future of Kalaupapa, Hawaii, once the home of leper priest, Fr Damien de Veuster. - Catholic News Service

Celebrating 142 years of publishing excellence.
Find out more »

Subscribe

Receive CathNewsUSA headlines in your inbox daily.

News Feed

Subscribe to the CathNews RSS feed to get the daily edition automatically delivered to you.

Daily Prayer