Perdition's Grasp: Is Nancy Pelosi Beyond Redemption?

The Company One Keeps

As a pastor of souls, my overriding concern and chief responsibility is the salvation of souls. - Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone

THE LOOP | Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone responded to Nancy Pelosi’s statement that she is continuing to receive Communion, despite his instructions for her to stop receiving until she repents of her support for abortion.

Arrogance
Defiance

I will not serve

National Catholic Reporter: Pelosi said, “I received Communion anyway. That’s his problem, not mine. My Catholic faith is, Christ is my savior. It has nothing to do with the bishops.”

Nancy Pelosi's comment strains the limit of tolerance for arrogance. A Catholic does not so easily pit Christ against a successor of the Apostles, those whom Christ has set in authority to guide, govern and sanctify His Church. Granted, members of the clergy also strain the limit of tolerance for arrogance, ignorance, incompetence and disgusting behaviour: Weakland, McCarrick, Marcial Maciel Degollado.

If reason prevails, the emotions will not even get started; while if they begin in defiance of reason, they will continue in defiance of reason. It is easier to stop their beginnings than to control them once they gather force. This “moderation” is therefore deceptive and useless: we should regard it in the same light as if someone should recommend being “moderately insane” or “moderately sick.”—Seneca, Epistles 85.9

At some point, Nancy Pelosi's choices coalesced into defiance of reason. 

Archbishop Cordileone (Dec. 10 statement): “First and foremost, I would like to renew my request for prayers for the Speaker’s conversion on the issue of human life in the womb, that it be consistent with the respect for human dignity she displays in so many other contexts.”

Archbishop Cordileone (Ezekiel 3:20-21): the inspiration for his own conduct. (I)f a sinner dies without receiving an admonition to repent, “I will, however, hold you responsible for their blood.”  “As a pastor of souls, my overriding concern and chief responsibility is the salvation of souls,” the Archbishop wrote. “And as Ezekiel reminds us, for a pastor to fulfill his calling, he has the duty not only to teach, console, heal and forgive, but also, when necessary, to correct, admonish and call to conversion."

When a bishop issues a clear call to a member of his flock to conform to Christ's teachings for the sake of her soul, and is met with obvious contempt for the bishop's legitimate authority to preside over the flock of Christ for the salvation of souls, there can be little doubt that the contempt is a symptom of an entrenched condition, an illness that has metastasized and possesses the individual to a degree that her actions call into question her receptivity to guidance and her willingness to help herself. Which is to say, a lack of receptivity to guidance, to embrace truth and goodness, suggests the devil's non serviam has taken up residence in the soul.

(Archbishop Cordileone) then invited Pelosi to engage with open, honest dialogue, writing that such dialogue “can dispel misperceptions and melt away hostilities, and build new bonds of friendship.” He continued, “I ask this not only to dialogue in areas of disagreement, such as if and when it can ever be morally permissible to kill innocent human life, but also in other critical areas where our views on behalf of human life and dignity are aligned.”

The Archbishop concluded, “This should not be a problem, as Catholics are not afraid of the truth.”

"Catholics are not afraid of the truth." If Pelosi is not afraid of the truth, then she will engage and repent. If she is afraid of the truth, then she will retreat from the (Catholic) responsibility to embrace truth and repent of sin.

The article at The Loop captures contrasting behaviours. Behaviours have consequences.

1. Nancy Pelosi defends murdering unborn children.
2. She receives Holy Communion in defiance of her bishop's counsel that seeks to spare her from damnation (1 Corinthians 11:27).
3. She mocks her faithful bishop, a successor to the Apostles.
4. Her bishop invites her to dialogue in the truth and prays for her conversion (St Matthew 18:15-18).
5. She claims Christ.
6. Christ reminds her that... .

(n)ot every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’ | St Matthew 7:21-23

St Mark 4:4

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Pray, and pray we must, for the salvation of the prodigal Nancy Pelosi.  May she hear the voice of the One she claims is her saviour, the voice mediated through the witness of Archbishop Cordileone.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. | St Luke 15:1-7

Read also:

• https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/nancy-pelosi-is-half-right-her-soul-is-her-bishop-s-problem
• https://www.liveaction.org/news/nancy-pelosi-defies-catholic-church-abortion-angel/