Nancy Pelosi Barred by San Francisco Archbishop From Receiving Holy Communion Due to Pro-Abortion Stance

“San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone announced Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is barred from receiving Holy Communion due to her pro-abortion stance,” Fox News reported.

Cordileone wrote to the California Democrat, informing her that she should not present herself for Holy Communion at Mass, and that priests will not distribute communion to her if she does present herself.

BREAKING: San Francisco archbishop bars Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion due to abortion support https://t.co/mmDlYmLL8z

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 20, 2022

"Should we allow Nancy Pelosi to receive communion?

Archbishop Cordileone: "No" pic.twitter.com/m9yfVvTwjs

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 21, 2022

After numerous attempts to speak with Speaker Pelosi to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, an the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion. https://t.co/l7M85CyG86

— Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone (@ArchCordileone) May 20, 2022

“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others.  Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,'” he says in the letter.

In order to receive it again, Pelosi, who says she is a devout Catholic, must either repudiate her support of abortion or not refer to her religion in justifying her position.

“As you have not publicly repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come,” Cordileone said.

Fox News reported:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is unambiguous on the question of abortion, both in procuring one and assisting in the practice: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” the catechism says. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”

“Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law,” it says, before calling abortion and infanticide “abominable crimes.”

It also declares that “Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”

However, despite that clarity, liberal Catholic politicians have consistently attempted to try and align their Catholic beliefs with their support of abortion rights. Then New York Gov. Mario Cuomo famously declared himself personally opposed to abortion in 1984, but said he could not impose that view on the country.

But since then, Democrats such as Pelosi have been more full throated in their support of pro-abortion policies. President Biden, also a Catholic, had once supported the Hyde Amendment — which prevented U.S. funding going to pay for abortions abroad. He flipped on that amendment when he ran for president in 2020, and recently described “a woman’s right to choose” as “fundamental.”

Finally.
If you want to codify abortion for all 9 months of pregnancy you aren't in communion (small-c) with the Church in a clear public way. No communion, means no Communion (big-C). https://t.co/WreeQnln7w

— Fr Matthew P. Schneider, LC (@FrMatthewLC) May 20, 2022

And its a FORMAL denial of Holy Communion for Pelosi over her abortion stance, meaning other dioceses should honor it. WOW. https://t.co/REIoX3mckS

— Emily Zanotti 🦝 (@emzanotti) May 20, 2022

Timcast added:

The Archbishop said that he wrote to Pelosi on April 7, warning her that “should you not publicly repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

When Cordileone publicly spoke out about Pelosi’s abortion views last Fall, the speaker downplayed his comments as having a “disagreement” about the issue.

“I believe that God has given us a free will to honor our responsibilities,” Pelosi said at the time.

Fox News noted that in a 2008 interview, Pelosi claimed that “as a devout, practicing Catholic,” the Church has “not been able to make that definition” of when life begins. The comment drew criticism from multiple top US bishops, to whom she responded that “the point is, it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.” During that interview she had also stated that she wanted abortion to be “rare,” a seemingly far cry from the Democrat Party’s position of today.