Eve of the 5th: All Eyes on Archbishop Niederauer

When Pelosi-Gate erupted on August 24th, attention quickly focused on her local archbishop, George Niederauer of San Francisco, as the pastor of souls who is primarily responsible for ensuring that the most prominent Catholic in his archdiocese understands the teachings of the Church.

So far the only public action taken by the archdiocese of San Francisco has been to reprint the (first) statement issued by the USCCB and link to a good article by Rick DelVecchio (and not just because he mentions AmP). The archdiocesan newspaper, in addition, has reprinted a statement made by Niederauer in 2007.

Niederauer's spokesman, however, has promised that Niederauer will take up the issue in tomorrow's edition of the archdiocesan newspaper, twelve days after Pelosi made her comments.

It goes without saying that I'll be posting it as soon as I have access to the text.

At this point, twenty-four bishops, archbishops and cardinals have publicly corrected Pelosi, in various ways (see my updated list here), including the President of the USCCB, the chairman on Pro-Life Activities, the chairman on Doctrine, and the Archbishop of Washington (multiple times, in fact).

Now pardon my loose claims about Church law, but it is my general understanding that, while the duty to instruct the faithful falls equally upon all bishops, it falls particularly on the local bishop. And the duty to discipline lies particularly, and normally exclusively, with the local bishop.

That having been said, we eagerly await Archbishop Niederauer's column of tomorrow morning.

See my previous posts on Pelosi-Gate here.

Related: And while we are waiting tonight, I recommend listening to Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P. on the topic.

Update 7:30pm: Archbishop George Niederauer has released his text.