Published: February 14, 2012
Nancy Pelosi deserves to be taken seriously.
Blogs from canon lawyer and Father Z.
The following comes from the February 7 canon law blog of Ed Peters.
In March 2010, I expressed the view that Nancy Pelosi’s protracted and public anti-life conduct, which she repeatedly justifies with (twisted takes on) the Catholic faith, sufficed, in my view, to bring about her debarment from the reception of holy Communion under Canon 915.
If Pelosi’s “prolonged public conduct does not qualify as obstinate perseverance in manifest grave sin,” I wrote two years ago, “then, in all sincerity, I must admit to not knowing what would constitute obstinate perseverance in manifest grave sin.”
It’s now February of 2012, and nothing in Pelosi’s conduct over the last 23 months suggests any emendation of her attitudes toward killing unborn babies, etc., etc., etc. Indeed her recent call for Catholics qua Catholics to unite behind, of all things!, President Obama’s plan to impose immoral policies on private medical insurance plans - which call provoked the moving cri de coeur from Father Zuhlsdorf - suggests that Pelosi’s views, like Pharaoh’s heart, have only hardened with time.
Canon 915, as I and others have explained many times, is not about impositions on individual conscience, it’s about public consequences for public behavior. It’s about taking people at their word and acknowledging the character of their actions. It’s about not pretending that people don’t really mean what they repeatedly say and what they repeatedly do.
Nancy Pelosi obviously means exactly what she says, and she regularly backs up her words with deeds. She deserves to be taken seriously. Very seriously.
As a canon lawyer, my view is that Nancy Pelosi deserves to be deprived of holy Communion as the just consequence of her public actions; as her fellow Catholic, my view is that Nancy Pelosi deserves to be deprived of holy Communion to bring home to her and to the wider faith community the gravity of her conduct and the need to avoid such conduct altogether or, that failing, at least to repent of it. Quickly.Update, 8 Feb 2012: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a major proponent of the Obama administration’s push to mandate contraceptive coverage regardless of religious conviction, is already barred from holy Communion as a result of her pro-abortion activities while governor of Kansas. Bishops in the Washington DC area declared their intention to honor Bp. Naumann’s 2008 directive, and I’ve not heard of any change in the situation.
In other words, no reasonably well-informed Catholic believes that, in conducting herself as she does, Sebelius is acting as a Catholic entrusted with high public office ought to act. Thus, the scandal that Sebelius gives is significantly reduced.
The same cannot be said of Pelosi.http://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/nancy-pelosi-deserves-to-be-take...
The following comes from a February 7 blog by Father ZuhlsdorfNancy Pelosi (D-CA), catholic and openly an abortion absolutist, is from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, but she spends most of her time in Washington DC. She has at least quasi-domicile in the Archdiocese of Washington DC.
She is Archbishop Niederauer’s and Card. Wuerl’s subject it seems, and yet – year after year – she, saying openly that she is “catholic”, runs her mouth off with deeply and stupidly wicked remarks such as what follows.
From Life Site News:
February 6, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Even as the United States’ Catholic bishops have launched an all-out campaign against the Obama administration’s birth control mandate and urged their flocks to resistance, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has invoked the support of “fellow Catholics” to justify her position in favor of the mandate.
Pelosi was confronted at last Wednesday’s press briefing by a reporter from CNSnews.com, who began by pointing out that the mandate, which requires all employers to cover all sterilizations and contraception, including drugs that can cause early abortions, forces Catholic individuals and institutions to act against Church teaching.Irritated, Pelosi, a self-professed devout Catholic, [catholic] interrupted: “Is this a speech, or do we have a question in disguise as a speech?”
The reporter continued, citing a letter from the U.S. bishops, in which the bishops vowed not to comply with the law, and asked: “will you stand with your fellow Catholics in resisting this law or will you stick by the Administration?”
[Pelosi answered:] “First of all, I am going to stick with my fellow Catholics in supporting the Administration on this. I think it was a very courageous decision that they made, and I support it,” the minority leader responded. [I'm going to stick with my fellow Catholics?]
[...]
In an interview with the Washington Post this past November, she acknowledged that many Catholics object to being forced to fund abortions, noting that “they have this conscience thing.”The former speaker has also said she has “some areas of disagreement” with the country’s bishops, and has claimed that Catholicism does not necessarily condemn abortion.
I call upon Archbishop Niederauer and Card. Wuerl openly to state that Rep. Pelosi should not present herself for Holy Communion in their respective dioceses.
Nancy Pelosi considers it consistent with what Catholics do to take a stand against the bishops in favor of a policy that would force Catholic institutions to violate the teachings of her Church.Pelosi is a highly public figure. Few people are more visible. She is committing the mortal sin of scandalizing the faithful in a matter which unquestionably grave matter. There has been all manner of discussion concerning her and the issues of abortion, contraception, when life begins, etc. She can’t plead ignorance of the Church’s teachings. She continues to be openly, publicly, scandalous in these matters.
Now, she is taking an open stand against the American bishops – precisely claiming her catholic identity – in favor of a manifest attack on the Catholic Church by the most aggressively pro-abortion President we have ever seen.
Your Excellency? Your Eminence? How much longer does this have to go on? What else does she have to do?
For the good of souls, Nancy Pelosi must be denied Holy Communion and the Catholic people should be informed that she is being denied Holy Communion.
“But Father! But Father!” some of you are saying. “What about the… the… the… national repercussions? *sputter* What about the media firestorm?”
Damn straight!
Let there be national repercussions and a media firestorm.
UPDATE:
Here is the new Can. 915 swag you can get.
