By CHRISTOPHER MANION
Two weeks ago today, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone publicly announced his decision to bar House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the reception of the Eucharist. As expected, the announcement aroused significant indignation and ire from the Usual Suspects.
A tirade that appeared in the San Francisco Examiner the next day is representative of the hatred harbored by the Left Coast for the Catholic faith. Once a flagship of the Hearst Papers but now a free rag that’s worth every penny, the Examiner’s editors responded to the archbishop with a witch’s brew that sums up years of resentment, rage, and hatred of Catholic teaching. It has haunted the City by the Bay for years.
The Examiner’s attack calls to mind our report of last October, recounting Nancy Pelosi’s request for a photo-op with Pope Francis while she was visiting Rome at the time.
The Vatican’s video of the brief visit displays her desperation, clinging tightly to the Pontiff’s hand as the camera rolled, perhaps seeking a more welcoming smile during the perfunctory encounter.
The lady was desperate? We now know why.
As Archbishop Cordileone explained in his recent statement, he had been requesting a meeting with Pelosi for months. We now find that, while stonewalling the archbishop, Pelosi pulled an end-run to glad-hand it with his boss, hoping for a more cordial reception — perhaps even an affirmation of her scandalous defiance of Church teaching and her persistent desecration of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.
But what did she expect? Were there grounds for her aspirations? We recall that, on her previous visit to the Vatican in 2009, Pope Benedict offered Pelosi no video, and thus no publicity, to reinforce her claim that hers is the truly “Catholic” position. Pope Benedict gave her an ice-cold reception that spoke for itself.
Last October, she knew that Pope Francis was different. He saved that kind of rebuff — complete with a papal scowl — for trads, while welcoming every category of secular, pro-abortion, worldly powers, and potentates with a smile as wide as the Tiber.
So this time Nancy was received cordially — and that was enough for the San Francisco Examiner. The editors used the Pope to provide the imprimatur for their savage attack.
Why, Francis himself says that Communion “is not the reward of saints, but is the bread of sinners,” they purr, so it’s clear that he sides with Pelosi in her contretemps with her Ordinary.
But it goes downhill from there.
“Cordileone has now upped the ante by grandstanding on the issue and picking a fight with the most powerful woman — and second-most powerful Catholic — in American politics,” the editors write.
Wowie Zowie! Their infatuation with power fairly overflows — as long as it’s secular.
And authority? Moral authority? The authority of truth?
Not so much. All that went out the window with the Ten Commandments.
Remember them? California doesn’t.
Showdown In Earthquake Territory?
For years the West Coast Left has shown a silent omerta with the Billionaire Botoxed Boss who grew up in a powerful, mafia-friendly Baltimore crime family.
Her enemy is their enemy.
So the Examiner targets the archbishop, whose “attack on Pelosi comes as conservative justices on the Supreme Court are poised to play a key role in reversing legal precedent to overturn abortion rights. This decision,” the editors complain, “promises to further polarize American politics and strip away a key health right crucial to preserving the health and safety of tens of millions of women. Many women will die if the court goes through with this decision.”
Curious. After this tendentious treacle, they don’t bother to go after the Supreme Court. They go after the archbishop.
And what “big guns” do they bring to the battle? Come on, they’ve been waiting for years to go after Cordileone. What’s the strongest evidence they’ve found in their files?
A gaggle of pro-homosexual, pro-abortion teachers who work in the schools of the San Francisco Archdiocese, that’s who.
There you go — Catholic teachers opposed to Catholic teaching. Who better to serve as your “experts”?
Apparently, instead of firing them outright, Archbishop Cordileone had simply required that these disgruntled dissidents teach the truths of the faith — even the hard parts — and, more outrageously, to follow them as well.
Did they obey? Or, firm in their convictions, did they quit?
None of the above. Instead, they whined to Pope Francis, their perceived ally in undermining the faith in the young.
So according to these misfits (which they are, in the true sense of the word, frankly), “The Archdiocese of San Francisco is threatened by Archbishop Cordileone’s single-issue agenda and cannot survive, let alone thrive and grow, under his supervision. The City of St. Francis deserves an Archbishop true to our values and to your teachings.”
Ah. St. Francis’ Prophets of Pelosi speak. Now clearly their values (abortion, sodomy, and fornication, for starters) are those of the West Coast’s Sodom, but not of St. Francis.
But of Pope Francis? Are their values truly the Holy Father’s values, while Archbishop Cordileone’s are. . . .
Are what? The teachings of the Catholic Church?
Don’t ask, they’re in a hurry to get to the punch line.
Saved By A Soul Brother
“Today the archbishop has trained his sights on Speaker Pelosi,” they write, “a woman who has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed — and who is a role model for women all over the world.”
The Botoxed Bombast billows as they retreat to their hallowed ground: power.
Contrast St. Nancy’s character, they advise, with the archbishop’s: “Cordileone’s chief loyalty is not to Christ, but to the cabal of far-right American bishops led by Raymond Leo Burke, a Catholic prelate who has led a continual campaign to undermine Pope Francis’ authority.”
Forget Pelosi, she’s just a victim of a political sideshow.
Quite a stretch, I’d say. But that’s not all — enter Satan — and he’s on Cordileone’s side!
What? “Satan”? Sorry, they’re not kidding.
“His placement here was a cruel strategy meant to bedevil our community and set up exactly the kind of destructive political games unfolding today.”
So Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Cordileone are part of a Satanic political plot, and poor Pelosi is their innocent victim.
Now here we have a problem. Because the editors have already embraced Pope Francis as their authority for attacking Archbishop Cordileone. Now they are blaming Pope Francis for allowing this “cruel strategy” designed to sick Satan on the good people of San Francisco.
Why didn’t he answer that letter years ago and fire Cordileone? Hey, maybe Pelosi isn’t the problem, the Pope is!
Or something like that.
But that quandary does not occur to the editors. Instead, they rise in unison to give three cheers for their team:
“It is Nancy Pelosi, not Archbishop Cordileone, who reflects the true spirit of Christian care in the City of St. Francis. For the Catholic Church to continue to thrive here, we need a leader who opens the church’s doors to all, not a small-minded man who locks out his political adversaries….The attack on Nancy Pelosi should be the San Francisco archbishop’s final act here.”
And who’s going to bring the curtain down?
“We appeal to Pope Francis to send a clear message that he, not Cordileone, is the leader of the faith. He can do this by relieving this insubordinate saboteur of his duties in San Francisco and putting an end to his political schemes.”
But while Rome dithers, a saving grace has been bestowed by Bishop Marc Andrus, Episcopalian Bishop of California and Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
“Speaker Pelosi is welcome to communion in all Episcopal churches in the Bay Area,” he announced last week. It’s only “a shared meal of bread and wine,” he admits, but hey — so what?
Now, there’s a Christian for you!
Your move, Nancy.
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