At her weekly press briefing, a reporter asked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA):
The administration has issued a regulation that will require all health-care plans to cover sterilization and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that induce abortions. This would force Catholic individuals and institutions to act against their consciences. All across the nation, Catholic bishops are saying….”
Pelosi interjected:
Is this a speech, or do we have a question in disguise as a speech?
The reporter continued:
We cannot—we will not–comply with this law. Catholic bishops are saying they will not comply with this law. Will you stand with your fellow Catholics in resisting this law or will you stick by the administration?
Irked, Ms. Pelosi responded somewhat tartly:
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.
With that said, Ms. Pelosi has vowed her support for the Obama administration’s efforts in defending the new Obamacare regulations against the U.S. Catholic bishops.
As “Catholics of the Pelosi-stripe” continue to advocate their support for federal healthcare regulations that will require Catholics individuals to buy, and Catholic institutions to provide, health insurance plans that cover sterilizations and artificial contraceptives, including those that induce abortions, how long will it be before the nation’s bishops call out these so-called “Catholics” for what they are?
What’s that?
In short: Protestants.
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But the Popes are always off the hook in Catholic media as to responsibility herein or anywhere with references to subsidiarity and they’re not being CEO’s. I think they could command US Bishops under pain of interdict. That failed with Venice during the Rennaissance but it might work under the glare of modern media. Canon law does not describe Popes as bystanders but says something very different:
#331….
” By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in
the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.”
We have corporately transmuted the papacy into a theologians role….with this Pope having three bestsellers. Is that paradigm working? Would an aircraft carrier function for long periods if the Captain saw himself as mainly a writer about things maritime?
Secondly, the Vatican and US Bishops in their accounts better not have stocks in pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer which is in many major mutual funds and makes birth control pills. If Obama people uncover something like that, it will be embarassing even if it has been vetted by theologians under double effect principles.
Thirdly the Vatican never excommunicated a soul like Karl Rahner and Bernard Haring for contraception beliefs but could do so under canon 749-3 for abortion which is clearly, manifestly infallibly condemned by section 62 of Evangelium Vitae wherein John Paul polled the world’s bishops and used the formulaic language of the IC in an abbreviated rendition. Clergy like to conflate the two areas but that conflation siphons power away from the abortion condemnation if Rome has not censured great theologians like Rahner on the other area.
Blood squirting out of my eyes!!!
And now she’s celebrating the Komen Foundation’s cave/not a cave.
I think much involving the Church in the US is loosely interpreted and inconsistently applied.
there is research evidence that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer. Why would an organization that claims to care for women with cancer partner with an organization that pushes abortion (the largest abortion provider in the country?
when is this woman going to retire? I’m sorry but she’s just a bad person.
Remember when Pres. Bush hosted Pope Benedict at the white house and Pelosi kissed the Pope’s ring? what a phoney hypocrite.
God is going to straighten out this mess one day, and it won’t be pretty for either cleric or politician.
I strongly disagree with the characterization of Nancy Pelosi as ‘Protestant’.
Catholics and Protestants share many beliefs in search of the same God.
Nancy Pelosi is a false prophet: the snake in the Garden.
“20* But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her doings; 23* and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches shall know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.” Revelation 2:20-23
[…] A “Catholic” by Any Other Name is a “Protestant”: Nancy Pelosi – The Motley Monk, TAC […]
“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.”
This is either self-delusion to the point of certifiability, or self-aggrandizement to the point of forcible removal. There are NO observant Catholics who could support this, just as there are no observant Muslims who could support mandatory inclusion of pork products in Islamic-run food kitchens, or observant Jews who could support mandatory Sabbath appointments at free clinics.
The deliberate and painfully un-clever turnabout is so disgustingly typical of the arrogant, disdainful and downright hateful elitist power grabbers that it makes my skin crawl. She is no Catholic, nor is she to be even worthy of the honorable epithet, “Protestant.” She is a Stalinist of the first order and if there is justice in the land, she will suffer the same fate as all of that ilk before her: Disgrace and dismissal.
Why hasn’t Pelosi been excommunicated?
This is an evil woman. A woman who celebrates Moloch while posing as a good Catholic. I repeat: she is evil.
Sheesh**??**??** This is truly out of the mouth of Satan himself : “First of all, I am going to stick with my fellow Catholics…”….you are CERTAINLY NOT CATHOLIC, WOMAN…and i agree with you, @WK Aiken and Mike Tefft…. true, we cannot call this woman a “Protestant” either…she is pure evil….@Donna, the Holy Father does not need to call a Press Conference to solemnly declare this miserable woman ex-communicated. The day she decided to go against the Divine Teachings and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, she explicitly and knowingly, ex-communicated herself. Remember the Church teaches that when a Catholic is guilty of procuring abortion, assisting in procuring an abortion or supporting abortion, he or she has AUTOMATICALLY EXCOMMUNICATED HIMSELF OR HERSELF… and only a Bishop can give one Absolution. All those ex-Catholics in the Obama Administration who support, promote and defend the Culture of Death are no longer Members of the Body of Christ – the Catholic Church
Amen, says I and the rest of the amen corner.
But unless we (and by “we” I mean us laypersons, not just bishops) can get the 90+% of self-identifying Catholics who don’t follow the Church’s teaching and use contraception to get fired up about this and not just shrug it off, then it’s not too hard to see better economic figures this year sweeping the administration into another term with a majority of the Catholic vote – again.
Then Pelosi, Sebelius and the Pres. will all be hailed as political geniuses.
Bruce in Kansas,
I shouldn’t admit this at a public forum, but I will anyways just to make a point. I recently renewed my lapsed membership in Catholic Singles. As usual the overwhelming majority of participating Catholic women designated themselves as “moderates” or even worse, as “progressives.” Very few designated themselves as “Conservatives.” Of course this wasn’t a scientific, statistical study. Nevertheless, one of the moderates e-mailed me and so I responded. We conversed electronically over several days, and in one of those conversations I broached the subject of abortion, contraception and Humanae Vitae. She readlily admitted that I knew far more about Catholicism than she (she called me the best educated Catholic nerd she had ever talked with), and that since she is a nurse, hers is a more multi-layed point of view. She deferred further conversation to a phone which we had that evening. (She wouldn’t put her point of view in writing.) The simpler questions I had to ask her were quickly answered on the phone, but the “Bill Clinton” waffle began when the subject of Humanae Vitae came up. No matter what argument I used, she maintained that the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancy was contraception. (Abstinence wasn’t even a consideration.) It didn’t matter what the Church taught or how Obama was threatening the Bishops. I should have known better when I saw the word “moderate” and heard the phrase “multi-layered.” These are always code words for the diabolical. I will happily die single before I get involved with a person like this. They are incapable of understanding that the Ten Commandments are black and white (she kept on repeating there is no black and white).
I would be surprised if she ever called or wrote back. I think our conversation has left a guilty taste in her mouth that only repentance can remove.
(Comment edited by Donald McClarey for the reasons set forth below.)
No further comments about private individuals and their Catholicism. I do not want to expose this blog to any potential legal liability, no matter how remote, and I am editing Paul’s comment to remove any identifiers in regard to the individual. Paul did not mention the name of the individual, but what he did say was specific enough that I am not comfortable letting the comment remain unedited.
I understand, Donald. But what I described is the overwhelming majority of Catholics in these United States. No wonder more than half the Catholic vote goes Democrat. And the Bishops expect to rally the troops? It’s depressing.
Work needs to be done Paul, no doubt, but historically the Church has always come back stronger after a period of persecution. Periods of power and prosperity on the other hand have usually weakened the Church. The Church in the West became too cozy and comfortable with the dominant zeitgeist, and, as always, when we wander from Christ there is a price to be paid.
I agree, Donald. In the meantime, I have cancelled my membership at Catholic Singles. It’s like weeding through a basket of straw to find one grain of wheat. 🙁
I will continue to pray for our President, that the Holy Spirit will soften his heart, and for our Bishops, that God will strengthen their spines.
Donald, your response to Paul is spot on. Oh, yes, when the Church of Christ comes under persecution – and as you state, when we have pushed ourselves to the corner by our complacency – the Blood of the Martyrs and the Church Triumphant gets into combat to push back the Evil One. And the re-energized Church Militant wakes up to fight and rid Herself of the “Darnel” growing along the “Wheat”….and yes, we are ready to pay the price
Sorry; this is utter nonsense. (I say this as an Orthodox Christian myself.) Why tar good and sincere Protestants with this canard? It’s uncharitable.
Pelosi is a hypocrite and a cynic and probably not religious at all. If she had the slightest belief in Christianity, she would never do one-tenth of what she does. She uses her Catholic church membership solely for political leverage.
She’s most likely an atheist and should be excommunicated immediately.
Many opinionators/commentators to this particular post appear to take offense at The Motley Monk for having called so-called Catholics of the Nancy Pelosi stripe “Protestants.” Yet, in fact, that is what they are!
To wit:
1. They do not accept the primacy of the Pope.
2. They do not accept Church teaching in many matters of faith and morals.
3. They believe in on-going and individual revelation.
4. They endeavor to subject bishops and pastors to democratic political processes.
It may be politically incorrect to call so-called Catholics of the Nancy Pelosi stripe “Protestants.” But, it is factually correct. More specifically, they are Lutherans. Why are people fearful of calling something what it is?
Ms. Pelosi is indeed a born and raised Catholic and indeed is the high school classmate of my mother at the Institute of Notre Dame (IND) an all-girl Catholic high school in Baltimore, where her father Tom D’Alesandro was a US Congressman and the mayor, as was her brother later. She graduated from Trinity College in DC. She and her husband have five children and continues to attend Mass and receive the sacraments regularly as far as I know. It seems more appropriate to pray for her conversion on a host of issues and for her priest and bishop to give her sound spiritual direction rather than assert she has not the slightest belief in Christianity.
Protestants do have the slightest belief in Christianity. They simply are not Catholic. That’s the problem. She doesn’t believe as Catholics do. Why defend her?
Why? I don’t know – charity, hope, trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. Is it not a good idea to pray for our enemies?
Yes, Bruce. Christ has taught us to pray for our enemies. He has also called us to admonish the sinners, and Pelosi and her misguided “ex-Catholics” in the Obama Administration must be admonished. And it is sad she continues to abuse Jesus by receiving Holy Communion when her Bishop has told her to keep off the Sacraments. It is regrettable that when she presents herself to receive, the Celebrant or the Eucharistic Minister – out of desire not to embarrass her publicly – is forced to give her the Holy Communion. And she does that to mock God. Very sad