Nancy Rewrites The Catechism

Back on May 6, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided it was time to instruct the Vatican and its representatives in the United States on the proper use of Catholic theology as it relates to illegal immigration. She allowed as how St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of San Francisco, would not like America's failure to welcome everybody who wants to come here, legally or not. And she quotes: "He said 'preach the gospel, sometimes use words.'"

So far, so good. Addressing a convocation of Catholic laity, she suggested that St. Francis was advancing the Biblical admonition that "faith without works is dead." So how does her love of St. Francis square with her views on immigration? Says Pelosi (quoting St. Francis): "The dignity and worth of every person is a Church precept." Well, it's a precept that is common throughout Christianity. But it's a little unusual to hear it coming from one of the most pro-abortion members of Congress. Somehow, human dignity applies only to people sneaking across our borders illegally, but not to the innocent baby in the womb.

Pelosi can find human dignity in law-breakers, but not in the baby waiting to join us in the adult world. Once having found "human dignity" cum amnesty for illegal immigrants in the Gospels and the words of St. Francis, she went on to re-write the Constitution. She anointed herself a spokesperson for the Church, and said about illegal immigration "I want you to speak about it from the pulpit. I want you to instruct your, whatever the communication is, the people, some of them, oppose immigration reform are sitting in those pews and you have to tell them that this is a 'manifestation of our living the Gospels." Not exactly Shakespeare, but getting past the grammar and syntax, San Fran Nan is telling the laity and priesthood that the Church must involve itself directly in a political issue.

Pelosi is supported by and supports every Church-state separation group in the nation. She lectures us peasants constantly on keeping religion out of political arguments. Yet here she is, pronouncing amnesty as a matter to be preached from the pulpit by the clergy and the laity. I doubt that she can name a single Republican politician who has demanded that priests and pastors preach the anti-abortion message from the pulpit, let alone expecting the laity to push the priests and pastors out of the way if they fail in their duties.

She has essentially told her fellow Catholics to mind their own business about abortion, but to shout from the church steeple about amnesty. Though she was speaking to a Catholic lay group, clearly the message was intended to be applied from cardinals to parish priests. If they don't respond appropriately, the laity and church scholars should speak out against them.

Pelosi gets both Catholic doctrine and Christian principles wrong. The New Testament is entirely silent on the matter of immigration. It does say that a Christian's true home is heaven, not earth, where we merely sojourn. And Christ said to "render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." Borders, the law, and immigration belong to Caesar and have nothing to do with human dignity as it relates to illegal immigration. The Bible, Old and New Testaments, admonishes us to be kind to the stranger within our gates. It doesn't say to hand over the key to the house to law-breakers. We already feed and clothe the strangers within our gates, not to mention the free medical care. And now we're supposed to make them members of our family without the least care to the chaos it will wreak.

I wish to throw a little scripture back at Nancy. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." That includes not making up the Bible as you go along in the same manner as you do the Constitution. You don't get to treat either document as a smorgasbord from which you pick only those things you like and ignore or distort the rest. And most of all, your job is to legislate and govern, not to preach from the pulpit.