(Pamela Cosel, Headline USA) A conservative archbishop of the Catholic Church in San Francisco has finally denied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the right to participate in taking communion due to her years-long stance in support of abortion, terming it a “scandal.”
Pelosi has often publicly stated that she is a “devout” Catholic, knowing full well that abortion goes against the teachings of the church.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, 65, of Pelosi’s home church, announced Friday that he sent her a letter in early April taking away her right to communion once he learned that she is pushing to codify Roe v. Wade.
An unnamed person leaked a document of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion of the court that indicated Roe would be overturned.
Cordileone wrote to Pelosi: “I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publically (sic) repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.”
“After numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, and the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion,” Cordileone wrote.
In contrast, the archbishop of Washington has not yet denied President Joe Biden the same right, though he, too, is a supporter of abortion and therefore, not in compliance with church tenets.
Pope Francis has stated that bishops of the church should not let their pastoral decisions mix with politics. At the same time, the Pope has clearly said that abortion is murder.
In June, 2021, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted 168-55 to draft a document taking a stance against Biden, Pelosi and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, to be denied communion. Thus far, the Vatican has left it up to individual bishops to set their dioceses’ policies.
Archbishop Samuel Aquila of the Archdiocese of Denver agreed with his colleague in San Francisco and issued a letter of support. Likely other bishops will now gain the courage to talk publicly on this issue.
With leaders of the Catholic Church finally speaking in public against her, Pelosi will have to abide by the decision come Sunday. Instead of kneeling at the communion rail, likely she will now need to spend time in hiding in a confessional booth.
The question is: What took so long?
