I just read an article from USA Today that says the Archbishop of San Francisco has said Catholic Democrat Nancy Pelosi can no longer receive Communion in the San Francisco Catholic Church because of her points of pro-choice view. I know someone else wrote about this, but I wanted to add some thoughts.
These hateful and critical bishops should realize that this is why church attendance is in decline.
Catholics are generally a Democratic-leaning constituency, and always have been. JFK was Catholic, as were John Kerry, Pelosi, and of course the current president. I believe Joe won the Catholic vote by a few percentage points in 2020 according to the exit polls. Many Catholics are Democrats and many are pro-choice. By constantly demonizing pro-choice Catholic politicians and being so opposed to abortion and gay rights, these bishops alienate Catholic Democrats from the Catholic Church.
I don’t understand why they don’t realize this. They complain that attendance is down and there aren’t enough young people going to church, and then they come out with this intolerant shit. Many Catholics are progressive, especially young people, and they feel unwelcome in the church because of this.
Many of these church leaders said you had to vote Republican to be a good Catholic. This is ridiculous, because the Republican Party pretty much represents the opposite of Catholic teachings on most issues. Liberal Catholics and young Catholics who attend Mass are probably sick of being told they have to vote for assholes like Trump and vote Republican to be good Catholics. Priests and bishops are doing everything in their power to make Democrats and pro-choicers feel unwelcome in the church. And then they wonder why attendance is dropping? Maybe because they repel people with liberal leanings? Are they too stupid to realize it? Then they complain that attendance is down. They complain that there aren’t more young people attending mass.
They themselves are the reason attendance is down. Their radically intolerant conservative views and insistence on shoving them down everyone’s throats is why attendance is down. Why would a progressive want to sit on the pews and be told their soul is in danger because of their political views?
Let me give them some advice: Be more open-minded and tolerant of different viewpoints, and maybe more people will come back to the Church. Instead of saying you don’t belong to the church if you’re not Republican and anti-choice, they should do the exact opposite. They should say that anyone who wants to worship in the church is welcome regardless of their politics or views on abortion and gay rights etc. Maybe if you made everyone feel welcome, more people would go to church. There would also be more donations. Remember that when people leave the church, they also withdraw their donations.
But they won’t. They will continue to become more and more right-wing and intolerant and attendance will continue to decline. And they will wonder why.
