As they have with President Biden, the uber-Catholics who run CNSNews.com have — as part of their multi–pronged war on her — have deemed Nancy Pelosi to be insufficiently Catholic and hare taken numerous potshots at her faith. Despite the fact that it utterly failed in playing gotcha on her by refusing to understand that epiphany is more than a Catholic religious day, CNS labored to try to own her on her religion.
An anonymous CNS writer seemed upset with Pelosi in a January article in which she “expressed her view that pro-life Catholic and Evangelical voters had been responsible for electing Donald Trump president in 2016 after responding to Trump’s ‘dog whistle’ about Supreme Court justices.” The anonymous writer didn’t dispute that but instead got nitpicky by noting that Brett Kavanaugh wasn’t originally on the list of judges Trump said he would appoint.
CNS also trotted out the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, where Pelosi is from, to attack Pelosi:
- A anonymously written Jan. 22 article featured the archbishop “sharply criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.)—who represents San Francisco—for attacking Catholics who voted for President Donald Trump to advance the pro-life cause of protecting unborn babies from abortion,” quoting him as saying, “To begin with the obvious: Nancy Pelosi does not speak for the Catholic Church.”
- A May 3 article by managing editor Michael W. Chapman hyped how the archbishop “explains why Catholic politicians (and other public Catholics) who support abortion must not receive Holy Communion and why they must stop pretending that advocating for abortion is compatible with the Catholic faith,” though he admitted that the archbishop did not specifically name Pelosi or Biden.
- Chapman promoted the archbishop again in a May 17 article quoting him saying that Pelosi advocates “practices that are gravely evil” and that it’s his job to determine whether she deserves to receive Communion.
CNS also got mad that Pelosi had opinions about her faith and how she practices it. Craig Bannister complained in a May 14 article that “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who supports legalized abortion, said at her press briefing on Thursday that she can use her “own judgement” on whether to take Holy Communion at a Catholic Mass,” adding that “she was “pleased” with a recent letter on the subject of pro-abortion Catholic politicians receiving communion the Vatican sent to U.S. bishops” urging them against a blanket refusal to Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. (The May 17 Chapman article was in response to this.)
CNS even got upset at Pelosi for merely referencing her faith. An anonymously written April 9 article carried the headline “Pelosi: ‘Here It Was Good Friday…as a Person Who Is Catholic–and in California–the Most Holy Time’” — even though it was just a passing reference in an article about Pelosi’s comments on security issues at the U.S. Capitol in the wake of the shooting death of a Capitol Police officer on Good Friday.
CNS even takes stealth potshots at Pelosi over her support for abortion rights. An anonymously written Jan. 22 article noted that Pelosi issued a statement “celebrating the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that declared abortion a constitutionally protected right” — while including an undated file photo of Pelosi holding a baby. An anonymous June 21 article noting that Pelosi “put out a statement on Sunday to mark World Refugee Day and note that every ‘precious life torn apart by violence and catastrophe is a tragedy'” is illustrated with the same photo.