so house speaker nancy pelosi reacting
earlier today after the archbishop of
san francisco banned her from receiving
communion in her home
parish because of her pro-choice stand
on abortion
i wonder about death penalty which i am
opposed to so is the church but they
take no action against people who may
not share their view
jonathan morris is a theologian and fox
news contributor and it's great to have
you with us
jonathan good morning to you you know um
what do you make of of nancy pelosi's
argument there first of all that um that
the death penalty is not you know people
are not withheld from communion before
their stance on the death penalty it's a
strong man argument because there's no
legislator
in even the state of california
nonetheless in her archdiocese of san
francisco who's proposing
greater laws in favor of the death
penalty
but what his her archbishop
leonie is doing right now is saying
actually
it's my responsibility if you if you're
in my archdiocese
and you're proclaiming to be a
practicing catholic if you are publicly
going to communion and communion also
entails being in communion
in agreement with the church's major
teachings right on faith and morals i
have to i have to tell you you shouldn't
be doing that and he has tried over and
over again to do this in a private way
saying please just either don't call
yourself a practicing catholic and
saying that this is actually good or
stop promoting those things well
obviously just two quick points here if
i may i mean obviously because of what's
going on with roe v wade this this is an
issue that i think the church is now put
in a position where they they need to
take a strong stand on it and explain to
people what the stance is on the other
just one quick thought on this argument
about the death penalty it seems to me
that nancy pelosi is acknowledging that
the comparison is life
right to life that's right because she's
saying you know you can't withdraw you
can't withhold communion from someone
who's pro-death penalty well then in my
mind you're equating that to abortion
which would be the question of the right
to live you're absolutely right let's
use another example and i wonder what
nancy pelosi would think about this what
if there is a legislator
who is saying i'm in favor i'm a
catholic or let's say i'm a united i'm
part of the united methodist church
and i am in favor of laws that would
bring slavery back
would the head of the united methodist
church should should that leader say hey
do whatever you want or should they say
no don't call yourself a member of the
united methodist church if you're
promoting slavery you can't do it and
that's exactly what's happening in san
francisco the archbishop is saying nancy
pelosi
choose what you wish do you want to be a
practicing catholic or do you not and if
you want to be a practicing catholic
stop doing something that goes directly
against a major tenant of the faith
protecting life well we'll be we'll be
waiting
no whoopi goldberg let's listen to what
she said
this is not your job dude
that is not you can't that is not up to
you to make that decision
you know what is the saying it's kind of
amazing
uh
but
you know
what is the point of communion right
it's for uh sinners
it's the for the for sinners it's the
reward of saints but the bread of
sinners how dare you
so she says that that is not his job but
i'm lutheran not catholic but i was
reading this morning that it actually
that is actually his job yeah she's
saying it's not the archbishop's jobs to
determine who can go to communion or not
now whoopi is right that a communion is
not for all for saints it's for all of
us but it is the the job it's actually
in the job title of an archbishop it's
part of his main responsibilities to
teach the faith and be a guardian of the
sacraments to make sure that the
sacraments are not being abused and
turned into a political thing
what nancy pelosi is doing is
politicizing
politicizing her faith by saying
actually i'm right and i'm going to go
against my faith and say that it's
actually with my faith that's i think
terrible leadership on the part of nancy
pelosi i would also say
that pope francis has a responsibility
here
the bishops are being left in a very
hard position he needs to say if canon
law gives responsibility to the bishops
to be guardian of the sacraments well
then uh they should be encouraged to do
that or else canon law should be changed
right right and so pope francis has some
responsibility here too great to see you
a wonderful guest on it great to see you
john thanks for coming in