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PrintMay 9, 2010
The Gospel According to Pelosi
Did Pope Benedict XVI give up his post as head of the Catholic Church, and make Nancy Pelosi the new pope? By all indications from a speech on immigration reform she gave on May 6 at a progressive Catholic forum sponsored by Trinity Washington University and National Catholic Reporter -- two of many liberal adjuncts to the American Catholic Church -- she has taken on her new role as supreme pontifette with gusto.
In her sanctimonious manner, she commanded:
The cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops that come to me and say, 'We want you to pass immigration reform,' and I said, 'I want you to speak about it from the pulpit. I want you to instruct your' -- whatever the communication is," said Pelosi, who is Catholic, speaking at the Nation's Catholic Community conference sponsored by Trinity Washington University and the National Catholic Reporter. [snip]"The people, some (who) oppose immigration reform, are sitting in those pews, and you have to tell them that this is a manifestation of our living the gospels," she said. [snip]Pelosi said the church "has an important role to play" in teaching about dignity and respect, and "as a practical matter" it's not possible to tell 12 million illegal immigrants to "go back to wherever you came from or go to jail."
Pro-choice Pelosi should be the last person the bishops turn to for advice. Instead, the church leaders should be consulting their Shepherd in Chief over in Rome if they have difficulties in their dioceses. Immigration reform has been a hot button issue for the bishops in America since a large percentage of illegal aliens have Catholic roots.
The strangest aspect of Pelosi's instruction, however, is her desire to coalesce church and state. For the past fifty years, pastors and bishops have been on guard about preaching politics from the pulpit in fear of jeopardizing their tax exempt status.
As recently as the 2008 elections, many Catholics rejected any clergy who spoke during a homily about why parishioners should choose one candidate over another. Progressives inside the church cried foul whenever the church tried to step into the political arena.
Pelosi's a clever woman. She has a two-fold game plan going on here. She makes it look like the government is softening its stance on that pesky separation of church and state issue, while she speaks in a commanding voice to church officials, thereby subordinating the church to the state. In Marxist movements, the state must either do away with religion or control it; either way the bishops lose.
