By Judie Brown
To be perfectly clear, this is not a hate piece about 84-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We are sincerely sorry about her recent accident; she is in our prayers. We ask the Lord to grant her a complete recovery after her hip surgery and hope that the physical therapy that ensues will find her healing and better than ever.
At the same time, we are concerned for her immortal soul, but we know that hope springs eternal. It is of this that we write.
It is edifying and at the same time disturbing that at long last at least two shepherds of the Catholic Church have spoken out on the travesty of Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to fully embrace what she claims is her Catholic identity. This story is a sad one.
In 2022, San Francisco’s archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, wrote to Pelosi in an official letter, saying, “I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.”
Similarly Archbishop Timothy Broglio, presiding over Mass in the nation’s capital, spoke with Pelosi but did not give her the Eucharist.
This chain of events has, for the most part, been either misreported, distorted, or simply ignored. The crux of the matter—the reception of the body of Christ by errant Catholics in public life—has somehow landed on the trash heap of fake news.
Thank God for the likes of Phil Lawler, whose clarity of thought is never lacking. Observing the recent Pelosi Communion flap, he wrote:
The truth of course is that the “everyday Catholic” would be hard pressed to come up with a single citation from the Code of Canon Law. But if you have seen any discussion of canonical issues in the press during the last several years, the chances are good that the canon in question has been #915, which stipulates that those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” Insofar as American Catholics have been arguing for a full generation about whether pro-abortion politicians should receive Communion—and the National Catholic Reporter has been an active participant in those debates—Canon 915 should be the least obscure provision in the Code.
So if Canon 915 remains obscure to the everyday Catholic, blame that fact on the journalists—especially Catholic journalists—who never cite the clear language of Church law on this vexed issue.
Yet even in the wake of the disparity between canon law and the media’s annoying misrepresentation, the truth is very easy to see and explain as it pertains to the Pelosi situation. Nancy Pelosi has persistently and egregiously promoted and supported the act of abortion.
And lest anyone forget it, abortion kills people. Pelosi supports it without apology, having never recanted her stance.
In fact, she has defied her bishop, hoping we surmise that he will not mention the truth about the sacred nature of the body of Christ in the Eucharist. But now perhaps she will take a moment to revisit her tragic history regarding one of the most fundamental teachings in the Catholic Church.
While we are praying for Pelosi’s physical healing, we also pray for her spiritual healing.
Saint John of the Cross taught, “In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.” In other words, God will examine how we dealt with our fellow human beings, as this is a measure of our love for God.
We ask the Lord to reveal this to Pelosi, to be with her at this hour, and to call her back to His teachings, His sacraments, and most of all His undeniable love for her. In Him and through Him, may her comeuppance become her greatest spiritual asset.