Pat Stevens/
Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement yesterday that US House of Reps Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will not be admitted to communion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and cannot present herself to receive the Eucharist, until she backs away from her support for abortion.
It is the latest development following the leak of the Roe v. Wade draft abortion decision earlier this month and the latest bid by the church to hit back at liberal politicians who say they are Catholic but back terminations.
Cordileone on Friday banned Pelosi from Holy Communion due to her stance on abortion. The Speaker had voted to codify Roe. V Wade.
President Joe Biden, who describes himself as a devout Catholic and regularly attends mass, has also been threatened with being barred from communion because of his pro-choice stance.
Conservative catholic bishops have said neither him nor Pelosi should be allowed to receive communion, but the top Democrat has previously brushed aside feuds with the Church as a “disagreement”.
“Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi’s position on abortion has become only more extreme over the years, especially in the last few months,” Cordileone says in the letter.
“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,”
“After numerous attempts to speak with her (Pelosi) 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 unless and until she publicly repudiate her support for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance,” he adds.
“Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons” are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.
Cordileone insisted that the decision was “pastoral” and not “political”.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls abortion “evil” and the 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.”
Pelosi, who has five children, was pressed on abortion after the Roe v. Wade opinion leaked to Politico and sent shockwaves across the country.
Last month she said, “This [topic] really gets me burned up in case you didn’t notice, because again I’m very Catholic, devout, practicing, all of that.
“They would like to throw me out. But I’m not going because I don’t want to make their day.”
In a 2008 interview with C-SPAN, Pelosi said being denied Communion would be “a severe blow”, the Catholic News Agency reported.
She added that the Church has “not been able to make that definition” of where life begins. Pelosi also added that abortion should be “rare”, but it “shouldn’t impact on a woman’s right to choose”.
Pelosi has only been barred from communion in San Francisco, and it is up to Catholic bishops in other parts of the US whether she be allowed.
Biden threw his weight behind a woman’s right to choose during his presidential campaign in 2020, saying it is “fundamental”.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has rebuked Biden over his stance on abortion.
But he has continued to attend mass after Pope Francis told him in October 2021 during a meeting in Rome that he could continue to take the holy sacrament.
Pope Francis told Biden he was a “good Catholic”, and urged bishops to make “pastoral” and not political decisions when deciding how to treat politicians who favour abortion.
Pelosi also met Pope Francis in October.
After the Roe v. Wade leak, Biden doubled-down on his belief that women have a “fundamental” right to an abortion and called on American voters to “elect pro-choice officials this November”.
He also warned that other “fundamental” rights for Americans – such as same-sex marriage – could be at risk if the Supreme Court overturns Roe.
In June, Catholic bishops ignored a pointed Vatican attempt to find unity over abortion by approving the drafting of a “teaching document” for Catholic politicians who support abortion.
Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s theological watchdog, has tried to intervene in the rebuke from US bishops.
He wrote to the Conference of Catholic Bishops last year saying it would be ‘
“misleading” to suggest abortion and euthanasia were “the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching” that require “the fullest level of accountability on the part of Catholics.”
In so doing, he signalled how the liberal Catholicism of Pope Francis – with a focus on poverty, racial inequality, climate change – is increasingly at odds with the US Church.
Read Archbishop Cordileone’s letter to Nancy Pelosi in full
The Second Vatican Council, in its Decree on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, reiterated the Church’s ancient and consistent teaching that “from the first moment of conception life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes” (n. 51).
Christians have, indeed, always upheld the dignity of human life in every stage, especially the most vulnerable, beginning with life in the womb. His Holiness, Pope Francis, in keeping with his predecessors, has likewise been quite clear and emphatic in teaching on the dignity of human life in the womb.
This fundamental moral truth has consequences for Catholics in how they live their lives, especially those entrusted with promoting and protecting the public good of society. Pope St. John Paul II was also quite consistent in upholding this constant teaching of the Church, and frequently reminded us that “those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a ‘grave and clear obligation to oppose” any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them’ (cf. Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the participation of Catholics in political life [November 24, 2002], n. 4, §1). 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” (Code of Canon Law, can. 915).
With regard to the application of these principles to Catholics in political life, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote to the U.S. bishops in 2004 explaining the approach to be taken:
In striving to follow this direction, I am grateful to you for the time you have given me in the past to speak about these matters.
Unfortunately, I have not received such an accommodation to my many requests to speak with you again since you vowed to codify the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in federal law following upon passage of Texas Senate Bill 8 last September.
That is why I communicated my concerns to you via letter on April 7, 2022, and informed you there that, should you not publically 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.
As you have not publically 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. Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be “concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care” (Code of Canon Law, can. 383, §1), by means of this communication 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 repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.
Please know that I stand ready to continue our conversation at any time, and will continue to offer up prayer and fasting for you.
I also ask all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to pray for all of our legislators, especially Catholic legislators who promote procured abortion, that with the help and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they may undergo a conversion of heart in this most grave matter and human life may be protected and fostered in every stage and condition of life.
Given at San Francisco, on the nineteenth day of May, in the Year of our Lord 2022.
0