Tuesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to explain how her purported Catholic faith squares with her support for infanticide after a San Francisco archbishop barred her from receiving Holy Communion.
Pelosi claimed abortion is not just about terminating a pregnancy because the people criticizing its legality and morality are the same people who are against contraceptives, family planning and in vitro fertilization: “It’s a blanket thing, and they use abortion as the frontman for it while they try to undo so much.”
She also criticized the Catholic Church for not refusing communion to death penalty supporters: “I wonder about the death penalty, which I am opposed to. So is the Church, but they take no action against people who may not share their view.” That’s because abortion — the murder of innocents — and the death penalty — punishment for heinous crimes against the innocent — are not morally comparable.
Pelosi also cited the Gospel of Matthew about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, etc. as evidence that Christians should be focused not on judging others for killing their inconvenient babies but on helping “the least of these” as Jesus commanded. But who qualifies more as “the least of these” than the helpless unborn?
“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others. Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,’” San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote in the letter explaining his decision to refuse communion to Pelosi.