San Francisco Archbishop: Pelosi ‘Not to be Admitted to Holy Communion’ Due to Abortion Support
“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is the cause of most serious scandal.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone decided that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would not receive Holy Communion at Mass because she supports abortion.
“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is the cause of most serious scandal,” he wrote. “Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.'”
You should not present yourself for Holy Communion if you are not in Communion with the Catholic Church.
You are not in Communion with the Catholic Church if you support abortion.
The Catholic Church bans people from receiving Holy Communion as a last resort. It’s a serious move the Church does not take lightly.
At the same time, the Catholic Church has been against abortion since the 1st century:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. 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” (No. 2271).
Every Catholic knows this, whether you’re a Cradle Catholic or a convert (like me).
Cordileone noted that in 2004, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told the U.S. bishops how to approach Catholic legislators who advocate abortion:
… when a person’s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his Pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist. When ‘these precautionary measures have not had their effect …,’ and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, ‘the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.’
In my opinion, Cordileone has been way too patient with Pelosi. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote after Biden’s 2020 win (emphasis mine):
The Eucharist is the source and summit of Catholic life. Therefore, like every Catholic generation before us, we must be guided by the words of St. Paul, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27). This means that all must examine their consciences as to their worthiness to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord. This examination includes fidelity to the moral teaching of the Church in personal and public life.
Pro-choice vs. pro-abortion: are you fighting laws that would stop “choice”? Or are you creating laws that make it easier to procure an abortion?
Therefore, Cordileone had to take the next step, especially since has not responded to his last communication request:
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.
Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law states: “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.”
Cordileone criticized Pelosi for presenting herself for Communion but also using her faith to justify supporting abortion (emphasis his):
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.
I mean, not only does Pelosi support infanticide while claiming to be a devout Catholic, but she also lies about the Church and its standing on life:
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 — a remark that brought a slew of criticism from a number of top U.S. bishops – and then said that “the point is, it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose.” In that interview she also said she wanted abortion to be “rare.”
But in the wake of the leaked opinion this month suggesting that the Supreme Court will soon overturn Roe v Wade, Pelosi has not talked about reducing abortion, but she has continued to claim that her pro-choice stance is in line with Catholic teaching.
“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,” she said this month.
I’ll repeat myself: Pro-choice vs. pro-abortion: are you fighting laws that would stop “choice”? Or are you creating laws that make it easier to procure an abortion?
Pelosi thinks way too highly of herself. She doesn’t want to make their day because she won’t follow Catholic teachings? She’s so full of herself, acting like she’s better than the Church’s teachings that have been established since the first freaking century.
Good for you, Archbishop Cordileone. I know this was not an easy decision for him, but it had to be done.
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Comments
She will pay… what? I think the word is dispensation. Then it all gets swept under the rug.
Cynical. Youuuu betcha!
She will continue to receive communion in the liberal dioceses, such as Washington DC. But she won’t be able to bribe her home diocese.
She’ll always have ice cream…
What happened to the “you’re going to Hell” part?
The liberal dioceses of Progressive Churches.
No such thing as dispensation anymore. San Fran Bishop has intestinal fortitude. Don’t expect any east coast bishop to do the same though.
You are either in communion with the catechism of the church or you’re not. The way I was raised is you excommunicate yourself. You decide not to be in communion.
Pelosi is delusional though. She believes she is in communion. The Bishop had to point out to her, forcefully, she wasn’t. This was after previous verbal communications from him to her telling her the same thing.
Oh, come on – you really believe she believes she is God-fearing?
Due to the church’s lack of cojones to take on a powerful politician she has been operating under a de facto dispensation already. Someone just figured out she wasn’t Henry VIII and removed it.
Dispensation – An act whereby in a particular case a lawful superior grants relaxation from an existing law
Formal dispensation from what the church considers a mortal sin is a non-starter.
I think of the horror of her existence, as she approaches the end of her years, and how she has to fervently hope there is no God. What a dismal end.
I saw your comment. It reminded me I need to pray for the lousy bitch. Can I use that language? I despise her. But I can still pray for her. Maybe I’m not a proper Christian. Ask anyone I’ve fed my elbow.
You remind me sir, that claiming to be a Christian is just bragging if you can’t walk the walk.
Yes you are exactly right. We have to hope and pray for her soul. My hero is St. Thomas More who continued to pray for Henry right until the end. If More could do that then I guess I should spare a moment for Pelosi.
Rumor has it that Pelosi, on her death bed, plans to have a sale on her jewelry.
So the SF bishop ordered Pelosi not to be served RC communion. Does his order act like the order of one of these federal district court judges when they order a national injunction?
What if SanFranNan presents herself at the altar of a DC church? The DC bishop (who is now a cardinal) is a raving lefty, the very PC POC Wilton Daniel Gregory. Will he order his priests to honor the SF bishop’s order?
Don’t count on it.
In theory the other Diocese will defer to the ruling made in her home Parish/Diocese.
Here’s your answer,
“Bear in mind, Archbishop Gregory is a protege of Theodore McCarrick, his predecessor as Archbishop of Washington. [McCarrick, still alive, is the defrocked, homosexual cardinal.] Gregory was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops when Pope Benedict XVI handed down a letter to the USCCB saying that pro-abortion politicians ought to be denied Holy Communion. He and McCarrick refused to share the letter with their brother bishops; worse, they said the Holy Father urged them not to deny Communion to the pro-aborts. It was a patent lie—one that has done incalculable harm to the Church’s pro-life witness. It was a great boon, however, to Catholic Democrats like Joe Biden and John Kerry [and Nancy].”
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/wilton-gregory-is-the-deep-church
Here are our principal enemies,
— Big government
— Big church
— Big education (aka “the Academy”)
— Big unions (of government employees)
No, the Washington DC diocese will still give Nancy communion.
In theory, the bishops would cooperate, however, they were unable to reach an agreement.
And the answer is NO, Cardinal PC POC Wilton will NOT enforce,
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/leftist-dc-archbishop-gregory-stands-pelosi-abortion-birth-policies-will-not-order-priests-refuse-communion/
Just out of curiosity, why wasn’t this decision made last year? Or the year before? Or thirty or forty years ago?
I am not Catholic, but I have observed a fairly traditionalist shift in younger Catholic laity. I hope that isn’t an isolated experience. It seems a lot of newer orders are failing and older, traditional orders are thriving.
My judgment is that the church has been worried it will lose “members” if it enforces its own rules and actually shepherds the flock. Maybe that cowardice is fading, or the above shift is happening so the cowardice isn’t as big of a consideration.
Whoever realizes an internally, externally, and mutually consistent religion (i.e. behavioral protocol) will earn people’s faith… trust. The top contender today is Christian morality, not Pro-Choice ethics.
Politics, both state and church.
That helps dems. The dems will save you from Catholics, abortionwise.
It’s good to finally find out that not every Church official above a certain rank is a castrato.
Mental masturbation. Nothing more.
Piss-Lousy will attend Mass at a church where she can shop for communion.
Besides. The church does not excommunicate anyone. The person excommunicates themselves by their actions. Refusing communion to San Fran Nan does nothing. She’ll ignore it, as many of the churches pedophiles and molesters in frocks ignore canon law when it comes to buggering children.
There are 2 types of excommunication. The church does have an institutional excommunication in addition to the one that you describe.
The SF bishop is not using the formal excommunication, but he did order the priests not to give her communion in the SF diocese which is about the same thing.
With the example of the man in 1 Corinthians 5, I don’t understand why she isn’t put out of the church altogether – i.e., excommunicated.
Unless of course in the Catholic church excommunication is synonymous with denying the eucharist.
It’s not synonymous, denial of communion is just one of the consequences. She is also denied any other sacrament, most of which she’s beyond caring about… except for death rites and a Catholic burial, which may rattle her more than a bit.
Let me clarify. The above applies to excommunication, which the Archbishop has not done.
In the Church, no person can receive communion until they are shriven of all sin through confession and penance. What the Archbishop has done here is notify Pelosi that her sin will not be forgiven as long as she continues to act in a way so to continuously commit it, and therefore he will not allow her to take communion until she changes/repudiates her ways. He has publicly declared her a non-repentant, chronic sinner.
Thanks for the explanation, Henry. Growing up protestant, I rarely saw churches carry out disciplinary measures against an unrepentant congregant. Of course, the way churches work these days, with people hopping from one to another or driving to a church in another community, congregants can easily hide their private lives and remain anonymous. So unless a congregant confesses their sin to another member or the pastor, there’s little prospect of accountability.
Catholic Canon 1398 states that a person who procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication. No church official need declare it.
Well, of course, Pelosi didn’t GET one. That we know of.
Thanks Gosport. That makes sense to me in as much as to willfully sin is to break fellowship with Christ.
I don’t understand why she isn’t put out of the church altogether – i.e., excommunicated.
Because that isn’t how excommunication works. You are not “put out of the church altogether”. You are punished by being denied the sacraments until you confess your misdeeds and receive absolution. Then and only then are you allowed the sacraments. And that was a very serious thing back in the day when the church controlled everything. But you are not ever considered “out of the church altogether”.
As an aside, Pope John Paul II (could be wrong on the Pope) removed the one and only way to become “not Catholic” from Canon Law so there is technically now no way for a Catholic to renounce their Catholicism. So once a Catholic, always a Catholic.
This only took a few decades. No worries, Commie Pope will rescind the order.
Her religion functions through voluntary association and compliance, here and now. What’s in your faith? Dignity, agency… self-moderation is a virtue. #HateLovesAbortion
Next up: that good Catholic boy from Scranton.
Finally! Either you follow doctrine or find a lala land liberal so called “Christian” church that allows the killing of babies.
There are plenty of churches out there to choose from where the leadership and congregants have chosen to stray from the traditional interpretations and teachings. All faiths are sharing the trend to put ‘inclusion’ and temporal matters above tradition and core beliefs in order to attract members and importantly their donations.
In shoving aside bedrock principles in favor of growing their flock these churches seem to demonstrate their ‘love of money’ or avarice which is the root of a great many evils. IMO.
Being a devout Catholic, Pelosi must be devastated. Someone please give her a hug.
We have entered a bizarro world where American Catholic bishops are acting like bishops. Weird.