Catholic Clergy v Nancy Pelosi

Who knew there were so many theologians on social media?

As soon as news broke Friday that Nancy Pelosi was barred from receiving communion in the  diocese of San Francisco over her militant stand on abortion, angry “experts” on Catholicism roared.

Atheists, agnostics, liberal Christians and abortion enthusiasts of all stripes - apparently unaware that the Catholic Church is not a poll-driven organization that bows to the prevailing secular winds - howled indignantly about the decision.

The wildly left-wing San Francisco Chronicle published a scathing editorial over the weekend, telling the Pope to remove the archbishop. It added that Pelosi was a better Catholic than the cleric.

The hubris of the press knows no bounds.

It wasn’t long before the pontificating devolved into anti-Catholic venom, at which point, I turned off my computer.

Let me be frank: If this isn’t your church, it isn’t your fight. 

Those of us who call ourselves Catholics are aware that we belong to a hierarchical church with a strict, unbending set of beliefs. Sure, some church rules have changed over the years. For instance, we only abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent now, instead of every Friday. 

But on bedrock beliefs, like the sanctity of life, nothing has changed. Or ever will.

Unlike Pelosi, most of us would never dream of calling ourselves “devout” Catholics, a descriptor she frequently uses for herself. That’s an adjective the press - a mostly unchurched lot - like to slap on any Catholic who attends weekly mass. 

Rather, most of the faithful consider themselves to be “practicing” Catholics. That is, we take the teachings of the church seriously and attempt to follow them, without holding ourselves out as models of Catholicism.

I was unsurprised by the announcement of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and have been wondering why bishops were willing to offer communion to Catholic politicians who not only tolerate abortion, but who are abortion rights activists.

While Pope Francis has said he’s never denied communion to anyone, he was quick to note that he’d never had a known abortion supporter present him or herself to him for the sacrament.

Let’s back up.  On Friday, Cordileone went public with a letter he wrote to Pelosi, warning her of the grave sin she was committing by promising to push for passage of a federal law making abortion legal up until the moment of birth everywhere in the U.S. 

Cordileone said he had reached out to Pelosi on numerous occasions since September when she first vowed to codify abortion into federal law. He received no response. When the draft Supreme Court opinion leaked last month, indicating that Roe v Wade may be overturned and abortion decisions will revert to the states, Pelosi tried unsuccessfully to push an abortion-until-birth bill through both houses of Congress.

“After numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, and the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiates her support for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance,” Cordileone said Friday in a letter to members of his archdiocese.

“I have accordingly sent her a Notification to this effect, which I have now made public,” he added.

Reaction from those who support abortion rights was swift.

Naturally, in its story about Pelosi, The Washington Post cited a recent poll that purports to show 55% of American Catholics support Roe v Wade.

So what?

One of the characteristics of the Catholic Church that sets it apart from many Christian denominations is that church teaching is not poll-driven.

If a Catholic disagrees with fundamental church beliefs, he or she can try to reconcile those clashes or leave the church. Publicly challenging church teaching by pushing policies that the church considers a matter of grave sin while holding oneself out as a “devout” Catholic runs the risk of excommunication.

Every Catholic knows that.

Catholic politicians who actively push abortion rights have been daring the church to reprimand them for some time.

Looks like Nancy lost the dare.