Pelosi Tries to Give Talking Points to Catholics

Right on schedule, Nancy Pelosi tries to do what Ted Kennedy and Mario Cuomo have done before her: give talking points to Catholics who wish to hop on to policy that flies in the face of church teaching.

You’ll recall it was Kennedy (and later Cuomo) who gave voice to the corkscrew notion that one could be “personally opposed” to abortion but too broad-minded to “impose my views on others.”

Because, as you know, modern-day liberals would never presume to impose their views on others, not at all. The HHS Mandate? Pffffft!…it’s not imposing anything on Catholic institutions! It’s just making them do the right thing!

Kennedy’s duplicitous language was effective, though. It informed whole generations of very cowardly Catholic politicians and others.

[It] sounded so reasonable and tolerant that it simplified the abortion debate for people who did not care to consider how nonsensical it was. Being “personally opposed” to the death penalty, would Kennedy have tried not to “impose those views” on states, had he the chance? Had he been “personally opposed” to slavery 150 years ago, would he not certainly have tried to “impose” his views on others?

In this case, Mrs. Pelosi is attempting to impose her views, and the views of the NY Times on others, but she’s not “personally opposed”, so she can’t mush-mouth like Mario; instead, she tries to suggest — in the face of the entire teaching body of the church and thousands of years of understanding and reason, that say differently — that her Catholicism compels it.

“My religion has, compels me–and I love it for it–to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider this a form of discrimination. I think it’s unconstitutional on top of that.

Her self-excommunication is apparently not that clear to Donald Cardinal Wuerl, in whose archdiocese Pelosi spends a good portion of the year.

Flashback: Why Cardinal Wuerl Will Not Deny Communion to Nancy Pelosi or Basically Anyone
by HHAMBROSE on Mar 1, 2012 • 10:51 am No Comments
Listers, recently a priest in the diocese of Washington (DC) denied a lesbian communion, and the diocese released a public letter apologizing to her. It has left many wondering if any person at all is barred from Holy Communion when they are under the pastoral hand of Cardinal Wuerl. The answer is lies in the Cardinal’s – then Archbishop – words regarding Nancy Pelosi and communion.

Archbishop Wuerl Refuses to Deny Communion to Pro-Abortion Speaker Pelosi

In an interview published in a Politics Daily article today, Bishop Wuerl said he disagreed with refraining from giving communion to manifestly pro-abortion politicians, which was equated with “Communion wielded as a weapon.” “That’s the new way now to make your point,” said Wuerl.

“We never – the Church just didn’t use Communion this way. It wasn’t a part of the way we do things, and it wasn’t a way we convinced Catholic politicians to appropriate the faith and live it and apply it; the challenge has always been to convince people.’’ On the other hand, sanctioning Catholics tends to alienate them, he said.

Wuerl said he will make no effort to keep Speaker Pelosi from receiving Communion, saying first “there’s a question about whether this canon [915] was ever intended to be used’’ to correct Catholics in grave error.

Canon 915 states: “Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

Wuerl: Why I Won’t Deny Pelosi Communion

For bishops, “there are two different approaches” to bring Catholic politicians in line with Church teaching. “One is the pastoral, teaching mode, and the other is the canonical approach” – the legal approach, in other words. He doesn’t think it’s a very close call: “I have yet to see where the canonical approach has changed anyone’s heart.”

Has he seen his approach change anyone’s heart? He smiles, and says one has to take the long view: “The teaching approach that we’ve used for centuries requires patience, persistence and insistence, but I believe if we teach our people, we will not have a problem with our politicians.”

Of Pelosi in particular, he cites two big reasons he hasn’t and won’t try to keep her from receiving Communion:
First, “there’s a question about whether this canon” – the relevant church law – “was ever intended to be used” to bring politicians to heel. He thinks not. “I stand with the great majority of American bishops and bishops around the world in saying this canon was never intended to be used this way.
”http://www.stpeterslist.com/asides/flashback-why-cardinal-wuerl-will-not-deny-communion-to-nancy-pelosi-or-basically-anyone/

I keep telling myself that it has gotten so BAD in the American version of Church, that Satan himself has before our very eyes struck the shepherd and scattered the flock and in defiance we must find the Comforter, keep Him near, as the flock we ourselves are in jeapordy, even grave danger. Apostasy is here, I fear. It just hasn’t been announced.

It’s as though the poor souls of the Bishops are actually now willingly appearing to enable the evil, themselves openly scandalizing the faithful, when they aren’t starving the faithful with a diet of milk. I grieve to tears for the abuse endured by the Lord Himself for our sakes, after all He did for us, and now the abuse of His Bride, the Church, and so much of it from *within* His Church.

I hear Raymond Aroya quoting numbers that declare that 43% of American Catholics voted for Obama. Presently we are said to be still split in polls something like 46/43 between the two. That is terribly close.

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