(Update) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been barred by the Catholic church from receiving Holy Communion due to her support for abortion, which the church considers murder.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote in a Friday letter to Pelosi that she should not present herself for Holy Communion at Mass, and that priests are to refuse to perform it if she does.
"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,'" reads the letter.
The church has been clear on abortion for a long time.
"Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion," says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. "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 continues, calling the medical procedure and infanticide "abominable crimes."
As Fox News notes; 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."
Cordileone says in his letter that he wrote to her on April 7, informing 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." He says that since that time, she has not done so. -Fox News
Pelosi has long tried to present herself as both a "devout" Catholic, while also fully supporting a practice that the church considers a grave evil.
In 2008, Pelosi tap-danced around the issue - claiming that "as a devout, practicing Catholic," the Church has "not been able to make that definition" of when life begins. Yet, the Catechism clearly says "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who claims to be a practicing Catholic, has been banned from receiving Holy Communion by the Archbishop of San Francisco until she reaches an “understanding of the grave evil” she is perpetrating and repents of her “grave sins.”
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone wrote in a public post Friday that his “many requests” to speak with Pelosi have been ignored and he has no choice but to ban her from receiving Holy Communion over her evil policies.
The archbishop said he communicated to Pelosi on April 7 that she must cease and desist her “advocacy for abortion ‘rights” or else immediately stop calling herself a Catholic in public. Because Pelosi ignored his advice, and has continued “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin”, he had no choice but to deny her communion.
The archbishop referred to the Catholic Church’s Cannon 915, which says that, “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin 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,” the archbishop wrote. “Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be ‘concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care’ … 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.”
The archbishop simplified his position in a follow-up tweet: “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,” he wrote.
