The Pelosi doctrine

By Judie Brown

What happens when we define Catholicism for ourselves instead of following the teachings of Christ?

Over the years former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said a lot of crazy things and has repeatedly insulted the Catholic Church she claims as her own.

This phenomena of claiming to be Catholic, yet disagreeing with Catholicism, was recently described by a Catholic priest, Father Longenecker, who stated:

The Pelosi Catholic's arrogance is only equaled by his ignorance. A cultural cradle Catholic, the Pelosi Catholic mistakes their tribal ethnicity for the Catholic faith. When they say "the Catholic faith is very important to me" what they mean is "I really like stromboli and when our family gets together we have a good time and grandpa talks about the old country and grandma always said the rosary and of course we have a picture of President Kennedy and the Sacred Heart in our house. Aunt Anna gave them to us."

Father's quote summarizes the situation perfectly, though to the world it might well appear that Pelosi speaks the truth when she makes some of her outrageous claims. For example, in her recent defense of Planned Parenthood she verbally assaulted members of Congress working to defund the abortion giant, saying:

This is more than Planned Parenthood. It's about women, it's about reproductive freedom, it's about respect for women's judgment about the sizing and timing of their families. How dare they be so disrespectful to women? How dare they be so disregarding of women's health issues.

Pelosi's justification of abortion based on her definition of the act as a "health issue" is but one of her doctrines. Yet it is not, by a long shot, the worst one. Pelosi noted during an MSNBC interview in September that she was happy to follow Pope Francis' "good guidance" to "be in dialogue" and "respect other people's views." Her comments came on the heels of Pope Francis' visit and her own personal interpretation that the Holy Father's words could be used to justify funding Planned Parenthood. "Pelosi has devolved to arguing that the pope wants politicians to accept a budget that gives millions of dollars to the abortion industry. Let that sink in a minute," writes Live Action's Calvin Freiburger.

Yet the more urgent point is that, had Pope Francis actually spoken out tenaciously on why the taking of the life of a preborn child is a heinous crime that must never be tolerated, Pelosi's doctrine would have been unhinged. Sadly, the pope did not do that. And in the absence of any public pronouncement of the Church's clear teaching, the Pelosi doctrine continues to muddy the waters.

The fundamental problem here is one of absence of courage among those who should publicly enunciate what it means to be a faithful Catholic. Because the Catholic bishops are for the most part silent, Pelosi and others like her continue to thumb their noses at the Church.

The reason they get away with this is that when Pelosi, Biden, and other publicly recognizable pro-abortion Catholics approach the altar to receive the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion, nobody calls them aside to explain that, because of their public support for abortion, they may not receive! Furthermore, as Fr. Michael Orsi states, "There is no unanimity among the bishops as to their imposition and whether or not an offending politician can be denied the sacrament if he or she presents themselves for Communion."

This has been the fly in the ointment for many years now and it would seem that nothing short of a miracle will change that.

So here we are. The Pelosi doctrine is alive and well and publicly flourishing. She and her cronies are having a field day. And because of the inaction of Catholic bishops in this nation

politicians will continue their "in your face" attitude toward the church and her leaders. Such a failure will also continue to allow Catholics and people of good will to be scandalized. Even worse, it gives the impression that others may follow the behavior of wayward politicians with impunity. . . .

As the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated so well, dear bishops: Not to act is to act!

Pray for the wayward in our midst and never stop reminding our fellow human beings that the doctrine of Jesus Christ is the only true doctrine. Evil facsimiles like the Pelosi doctrine lead people to hell.

© Judie Brown