Nineteen Roman Catholic members of Congress have written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to "correct the public record" on remarks she made a week ago on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the Catholic Church's teaching on abortion.
"As fellow Catholics and legislators, we wish you would have made a more honest effort to lay out the authentic position of the Church on this core moral issue before attempting to address it with authority," said the letter, delivered to the speaker on Tuesday.
"Your subsequent remarks mangle Catholic Church doctrine regarding the inherent sanctity and dignity of human life; therefore, we are compelled to refute your error," it added.
Mrs. Pelosi had said the Catholic Church has been divided over abortion and only in the past 50 years has believed that life begins at conception. The remarks were quickly condemned by the bishops of New York, Washington, Denver and Pittsburgh as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Catholic officials have stressed that despite different understandings over 2,000 years about when life begins, their church has always considered abortion a grave moral evil.
The signers of the letter asked Mrs. Pelosi to "rectify your errant claims and apologize for misrepresenting the Church's doctrine and misleading fellow Catholics."
All the signers, including Minority Leader John Boehner, are Republicans. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, who spearheaded the effort, said that was a deliberate decision so as not to put pro-life Democratic legislators in an awkward position.
"We will leave them to act according to their consciences," he said.
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