By Lauren Green
FOX News Religion Correspondent

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blew it! At least that’s what my sources are saying. On Sunday’s “Meet the Press” Speaker Pelosi committed a major gaff against the Catholic Church over the issue of abortion. Then she made a scholarly error when she referred to a fifth century theologian to support her position. The first thing one well-respected academician said to me was “What the hell was she thinking?!”

In deference to the hallowed halls of higher education, that quote will remain anonymous.

So what did Ms. Pelosi say?

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Ms. Pelosi answered Tom Brokaw’s inquiries about Senator Barack Obama’s statement that knowing when life begins “Was above my [his] pay grade.”

Speaker Pelosi said that “as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And Senator–St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know. The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.”

Pelosi went on to say that it’s only been about 50 years that the church has understood life to begin at conception.

What’s wrong? Two things. The first, saying that the church has only had the “life begins at conception” philosophy for about 50 years. The second was that St. Augustine, a pillar of Christian philosophy, said “three months”. In these two points, Pelosi made a factual error concerning the church, and an historical error involving one of the great minds of Christian philosophy.

On the first point, the church came out swinging. They responded in numbers and intensity that has surprised Catholic insiders. Statements came in from the United States Council of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop of Washington D.C. Donald Wuerl, Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Denver… and even Edward Cardinal Egan of the New York Archdiocese.

All voiced variations of the same theme: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion (USCCB)…..” and, that “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.” (Archbishop Donald Wuerl), they also pointed out that the church has had this position for about, oh… 2,000 years!

Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things magazine says one would expect Archbishop Chaput to “whack her around” a bit. — He’s quite feisty. But Bottum says “The fact that these other bishops have joined in… shows how bad things are… It’s a sign that a line has been drawn….. that there will be no nuanced positions on abortion accepted.” The nuanced position refers to politicians who say ‘I’m personally opposed, but legally for it.’

Now to the second point, that reference to St. Augustine, the 5th century theologian. It may sound like “inside baseball” to anyone outside academia, but listen up, because making a misstatement about Augustine’s position on the issue of terminating a pregnancy, would be like saying that although Beethoven composed nine great symphonies, he only intended to write five. It’s ridiculous.

To Pelosi’s credit all the scholars I talked with thought for sure she meant to say St. Thomas Aquinas, the 13th century philosopher, theologian and scientist. Aquinas was one of the “doctors of the church”… and did write about when life begins. Dr. Eleanore Stump, philosophy professor from St. Louis University and author of “Aquinas” (Rutledge, 2003), said that Aquinas speculated that an embryo gets a soul at the point of “quickening”, the time when a woman can feel the baby move, which would be about three months. But, she says “no way in life that Aquinas would have accepted abortion.”

But after Pelosi’s office released this statement late Tuesday, there was no giving her the benefit of the doubt. She meant St. Augustine.

“After she was elected to Congress , and the choice issue became more public as she would have to vote on it, she studied the matter more closely. Her views on when life begins were informed by the views of Saint Augustine who said: “…the law does not provide that the act [abortion] pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation.’ (Saint Augustine, On Exodus 21:22)

Dr. Peter Kreeft, professor of Philosophy at Boston College, says that if St. Augustine said this, it was only opinion, ” it was based on uncertainty”.

Bottum agrees, saying that Augustine would never have supported a world view where abortion was okay. Augustine fought against the Roman practice of infanticide — the killing of unwanted or imperfect children.

The verse Pelosi says Augustine refers to says this: “If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.” (NKJV)

Kreeft says, it sounds like if anything the verse supports protecting the unborn. Now the question is did Augustine mean to circumvent Moses? Hardly.

Stump emphasizes that intellectual powerhouses like Augustine and especially Aquinas are so incredible, they could debate their own arguments. Their writings encompass volumes of ideas and thoughts. Taking one of their statements and making it support a controversial political position is… well…like Obama said… above our pay grade.