The issue of abortion is not the only significant issue Pelosi is in disagreement with her church on. In a book edited by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s daughter Kerry Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi contributes an essay in which she announces:

My granddaughter was getting ready for her First Communion. Around the time of the swearing-in, we were all just lying on the bed, after the tea or something, and she said to her mother, “I want to explain to Mimi” — that’s me — “that it is the body and blood of Christ. When we go to church, it is the body and blood of Christ.” So her mother, in the interest of trying to simplify, said “Yes, the host and the wine represent the body and blood of Christ.” And my granddaughter said, “Not represent. Is, it is the body and blood of Christ.” My granddaughter was buying into it, okay. But it is hard. Every Sunday for me it’s hard. Christ had died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Now think of it, we say that every week. Do I really believe he’s coming again? Yes, I believe he’s coming again. Christ died, Christ is risen, Chirst will come again. This is my body, this is my blood. They’re asking a lot. In my era, we didn’t question any of it.

If you believe Christ is coming again and died for our sins to give us eternal life, “they’re” not asking all that much.

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If you’re not Catholic, her frustration probably sounds reasonable — which may be part of the reason you’re not Catholic. But if you’re truly Catholic, that is, if you “buy into” what the Catholic Church teaches, then you believe in the Real Presence, which is at the very heart of the Church. Otherwise, as Archbishop Chaput put it Sunday, “you’re not Catholic.” Preaching from the Gospel for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, from Matthew (16:13-20), Chaput echoed Christ’s question to His Apostles: “Who do you say that I am?” Chaput replied: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” One has to “say it and let our lives be driven by it.” Our personal, professional, communal, and political lives, Chaput was careful to spell out. “If you can’t,” he said, “you’re not Catholic.”

Like Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Biden, presidential nominee John Kerry before him, nearly every Kennedy who has ever ran for office, and countless other “Catholic” Democrats, Pelosi doesn’t shy away from using her Catholicism on the campaign trail and in her political life. As these politicians court “the Catholic vote,” faithful Catholics need to consider their moral responsibilities in the voting booth and hold accountable those politicians who support and defend a candidate who, for example, has refused to oppose infanticide.

In her book, Know Your Power, Nancy Pelosi sounds sincere when she insists, “Growing up Catholic had an enormous impact on me — greater, I am certain, than growing up in a political family.” I believe she is sincere. It seems to mean a lot to her that she represents San Francisco, “the City of St. Francis.” In her book, she cites his prayer on peace and love. She loves peace and love. But that’s not enough to be Catholic.

Perhaps Pelosi has not had the gift of a Sunday teacher as clear as Archbishop Chaput in her life. Perhaps Pelosi has been given mixed signals by churchmen. Perhaps Pelosi truly believes she can write her own way without effectively removing herself from the Catholic Church. That possibility underscores the need for more forthright priests and bishops like Chaput — for the benefit of the Nancy Pelosis and Joe Bidens of the world, as well as every last Catholic vote they court.

As Chaput put it to NRO last week: “Our faith should shape our lives, including our political choices. Of course, that demands that we actually study and deepen our Catholic faith. The Catholic faith isn’t a set of clothes that we can tailor to a personal fit. We don’t “invent” our faith, and we don’t “own” it. If we really want to be Catholic, then we’ll live by Catholic teaching. Otherwise we’re just fooling ourselves and abusing the belief of other Catholics who really do try to practice what the Church teaches.”

Sometimes “Catholic” isn’t all that Catholic. Sometimes, on Meet the Press, or on a convention stage — from which Nancy Pelosi will speak tonight here in Denver — it’s just another strategic rhetorical device. Don’t be fooled. And whether you’re voting or campaigning, don’t lose your soul to the soul of a party.

— Kathryn Jean Lopez is the editor of National Review Online.
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