House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is telling Catholic bishops who want her to pass immigration reform that they must speak out in favor of the reform in their churches.
“The cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops come to me and say, ‘We want you to pass immigration reform,’” Pelosi, who is Catholic herself, said Thursday at the Catholic Community Conference.
“And I say, ‘But I want you to speak about it from the pulpit.’”
This is the same Pelosi who drew strong rebuke from Catholic Church leaders in 2008 by arguing that the denomination's doctrine is unclear on when human life begins. She made that contention in defense of abortion.
As for immigration, Pelosi said last week that, as a practical matter, the United States can’t say to 12 million illegal immigrants, “’Go back to wherever you came from or go to jail.’”
And she was quite clear as to what she expects out of bishops.
“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,’” Pelosi said.
“Our patron saint of San Francisco, St. Francis of Assisi, he said, ‘Preach the gospel — sometimes use words.’ We need the words to be said because it isn’t being picked up automatically.”
In the 2008 dispute, Pelosi said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show: "I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition [when life begins] . . . The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.”
An array of bishops blasted those remarks, with Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo., saying, “Those Catholics who take a public stance in opposition to the most fundamental moral teaching of the church place themselves outside full communion with the church, and they should not present themselves for the reception of Holy Communion.”
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