I suspect that as the older boomers move on to their reward the numbers will improve for conservatively voting Catholics.

In the Catholic Church, the doctrinal communion and sacramental communion are both instances of adhering to the Person of Jesus Christ since Christ is at once the very substance of the Truths the Church teaches and the very substance of Communion. And neither of these in a figurative, merely spiritual, or any other way that reduces dissension on non-negotiables to anything but a violence to Christ Himself.

*scandal, in Christianity, is a technical term. From the Catechism:

2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.

2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”85 Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing.86

2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.

Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to “social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible.” This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.

2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!”

excerpt
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Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday told U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, that Catholic politicians have a duty to protect life “at all stages of its development,” the Vatican said.

The Vatican released remarks by the pope to Pelosi, saying Benedict spoke of the church’s teaching “on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.” That is an expression often used by the pope when expressing opposition to abortion.

Benedict said all Catholics—especially legislators, jurists and political leaders—should work to create “a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
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Cowardly and silent Catholic bishops notwithstanding, Pelosi, the Kennedys, and the rest of the self professed Catholic Democrats have self-excommunicated via their words and actions. 1 Corinthians 11:27 takes care of the rest.

Trust me, the church put out generic statements EVERYWHERE last year that warned against voting for politicians that support abortion, but it didn’t add up to a majority of Catholics supporting pro-life candidates.

According to the Catholic League, that campaign was very effective for church-going Catholics. It was the self-identifying non-church-going “catholics” who are rolled together in all published statistics with the faithful Catholics by the MSM that make it look like the RCC in America is on the hairy edge of collapsing. It’s frustrating as even the conservative pundits fall for the canard that the majority of all catholics support abortion rights.

Of course, if she doesn’t know her catechism, her bible knowledge is probably limited to Charlton Heston and Richard Harris. caricatures

Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Communion) – body blood soul and divinity. Its not about the “body of the people of the church coming together.” You might get all mystical and make that analogy, as an additional benefit of Communion, but Pelosi was not getting all mystical, she was denying the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Please.

If she is excommunicated that would be GREAT.

Pope Benedict is Brilliant. Nancy Pelosi is in dangerous territory.

if you’re wondering what’s the problem with…[snip]..trying to explain matters to a woman who can degrade the sacrament of the Eucharist down to “Communion is the body of the people of the church coming together”

Might it be this from this?

1415 Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace. Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance.

There’s got to be a bookie somewhere that’s taking action on this.

Your statement: “He may not be as policitically brilliant as his predecessor, and misinterpret the opportunity.” Show how much you don’t know Benedict XVI.

JPII did almost nothing without consulting Ratzinger, and refused to allow Ratzinger to return to Germany more than once when Ratzinger tried to retire.

Benedict XVI outpaces his predecessor in some key ways, especially in dealing with recalcitrant children like Pelosi and American liberals.

He excels at doing the exactly proportional, brilliant thing to have a measured, calculated immediate impact, but also to have a long-term impact that is obvious in parts, but not so obvious in others. The brilliant, and much reviled-because-willfully-misunderstood speech a Regensburg is one example of this, as is the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Both have layers of meaning and key phrases that initially set people through the roof, but are so deep that they will be the subject of discussion and understanding for generations.

JPII was awesome, but I prefer BXVI in this meeting with Pelosi.