Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone on Friday barred House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and also advised against presenting herself to receive the Eucharist, until she publicly renounces her support for abortion.
Cordileone said on May 20 that the measure was taken after Pelosi, who describes herself as a “devout Catholic,” repeatedly rebuffed his efforts to reach out to her to discuss her abortion advocacy. He also said that the decision was “purely pastoral, not political”.
In a separate letter to priests of the San Francisco Archdiocese also released Friday, Cordileone responded defensively to criticism that he was “weaponizing the Eucharist.”
He insisted that his decision was “simply application of Church teaching.”
Cordileone said that he sent the notification to Pelosi, “a member of our archdiocese,” on May 19. The Democratic leader did not immediately respond publicly to Cordileone’s announcement after it was released to the media Friday afternoon. In a 2008 interview with C-SPAN, Pelosi said being denied Communion would be “a severe blow,” describing herself at the time as a “regular communicant.”
Over the years, Pelosi has defended abortion while citing her ‘devout Catholic faith’. Catholic News agency cited atleast ten times that the speaker has publicly spoken in favour of abortion.
Most recently Pelosi spoke about the likelihood of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash.
Once she publicly seemed to criticise the Holy Father, Pope Francis by saying, “They say to me, ‘Nancy Pelosi thinks she knows more about having babies than the pope.’ Yes I do. Are you stupid?”
In support of the radical abortion bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act, ““I come to this as a Catholic mother of five in six years.. And we should not, in this body or in that Court, be making decisions for the women in America.”
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the Catholic Church’s pro-life position has remained consistent from the beginning.
“In the 5th century AD this rejection of abortion at every stage was affirmed by the great bishop-theologian St. Augustine,” who taught that “we cannot assume that the earliest aborted children will be excluded from enjoying eternal life with God," the USCCB states.
Cordileone's instructions apply only within the San Francisco Archdiocese. Other bishops have jurisdiction over such matters when Pelosi is Washington, D.C., and other dioceses around the U.S. and abroad.
-CNA