The only thing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holds closer to her heart than the U.S. Constitution is her devout belief in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, a guest host on MSNBC said on Thursday.
The idea that Nancy Pelosi loves the Bible and the Constitution came from Jonathan Capehart, a writer for The Washington Post and host of “The Sunday Show,” as he guest hosted Joy Reid’s show “The ReidOut.”
Capehart’s encomium to the Speaker’s faith came after he asked a Democratic strategist about Pelosi’s decision to “say ‘Hell to the no’” to placing Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN) on a select committee to investigate the D.C. riot on January 6.
“As Speaker Pelosi said, this is serious, deadly business, and she’s going to run this committee accordingly,” said Democratic strategist Juanita Tolliver.
She went on to connect the commission to the Democrats’ desperate hope to hold onto its narrow majority in the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections. “Speaker Pelosi meant what she said when she said this is going to run for as long as it takes to get to the truth — and that includes September, October, November 2022, where this will absolutely be front and center on voters’ minds as more information comes out,” Tolliver said. “It depends on what information comes out to make it noteworthy for voters.”
Capehart used that response as an opportunity to praise Pelosi’s civic responsibility and patriotism.
“People need to understand that for Speaker Pelosi, her reverence of the Constitution is second – her faith in the Constitution is second only to her Catholic faith,” Capehart said. “She takes her role as a constitutional officer of the United States government very, very seriously.”
Tolliver’s fellow panelist, former Republican Congressman Dave Jolly, appeared to smile uncomfortably.
Capehart apparently meant to present Pelosi in a better light than congressional Republicans, as he had just said that President Donald Trump “has no reverence whatsoever for the Constitution of the United States.”
If Capehart wanted to reassure viewers than Speaker Pelosi will abide by the enumerated powers and limitations of the Constitution, invoking her adherence to the Roman Catholic Church’s Magisterium seems an odd way to do it. Pelosi has been publicly rebuked numerous times for her diversions from the binding teachings of her faith.
Pelosi has long supported taxpayer-funding of abortion-on-demand. In 2019, she said that she wishes we “never had a Hyde Amendment,” an amendment that essentially blocks most federal funding for abortion services.
In 2013 remarks, Pelosi referred to the protection of abortion as “sacred ground.” As recently as last month, when a reporter from CNSNews asked Pelosi if “an unborn baby at 15 weeks” is a human being, Pelosi replied, “Let me just say that I’m a big supporter of Roe v. Wade.” When asked during a 2008 episode of “Meet the Press” when life begins, Pelosi replied that “as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time.” In reality, the Christian faith has maintained an unbroken teaching that the right to life begins in the womb from apostolic times. Science and embryology agree that life begins at conception.
Pelosi has fervently supported policies that would force nuns to pay for contraception and potentially abortifacient drugs as part of the Affordable Care Act’s HHS mandate, calling freedom of conscience protections “despicable.”
Pelosi also claimed her Roman Catholic faith convinced her to support same-sex marriage. When asked how she could reconcile her stance with the outspoken opposition of the Catholic leadership and the Catholic moral tradition, she replied haltingly, “My religion compels me — and I love it for it — to be against discrimination of any kind in our country. And I consider this a form of discrimination.”
The Roman Catholic Church holds that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, and that politicians should not redefine that ancient, pre-political institution. Then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) wrote in 2003, “In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws.”
Pelosi similarly holds to a view of transgender ideology that could gut religious freedom. As the Catholic News Agency has noted, Pelosi “has also supported the Equality Act, legislation that the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) has warned would ‘punish’ religious groups opposed to the redefinition of marriage and transgender ideology.” The Vatican set out its teaching in the 2019 document “Male and Female He Created Them,” which establishes “the centrality of the body” for determining one’s immutable sex.
Pelosi has so frequently and publicly flouted the moral standards of her church that Catholics have called for her to be denied Holy Communion until she repents. Pelosi’s own diocesan leader, Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore J. Cordileone, announced in a letter this spring that politicians who support abortion-on-demand should refrain from taking the Eucharist.
“If you find that you are unwilling or unable to abandon your advocacy for abortion, you should not come forward to receive Holy Communion,” he wrote. “To publicly affirm the Catholic faith while at the same time publicly rejecting one of its most fundamental teachings is simply dishonest.”
A month later, the full Roman Catholic hierarchy began the process of creating a uniform statement about pro-choice Catholic politicians. As The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported, in June “the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted, overwhelmingly, on Friday to draft a ‘teaching document’ addressing the issue of Communion for openly pro-abortion politicians, like Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and President Joe Biden.”
Despite her church’s increasingly specific censure, Pelosi remains defiant of the impending threat of ecclesiastical discipline. When asked about reports that U.S. Catholic bishops do not believe she should receive Holy Communion, she replied, “I think I can use my own judgment on that.”
Even as Nancy Pelosi steadfastly defies the moral and ethical teachings of her church, Capehart says, she has greater fidelity to Catholicism than she does to the U.S. Constitution.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.