A former auxiliary bishop of San Diego’s Roman Catholic diocese has barred U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the sacrament of Holy Communion because she supports abortion rights.
Salvatore Cordileone, now archbishop of San Francisco, wrote the San Francisco Democrat on Thursday, saying he had previously warned her that he had “no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
A San Diego native who attended Crawford High School and both San Diego State University and the University of San Diego, Cordileone said in a two-page letter to Pelosi: “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” to forbid her from receiving communion during Mass.
“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 publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance,” he wrote.
The Catholic News Agency said Cordileone’s instructions apply only within the San Francisco Archdiocese.
On Friday, the agency reported that Cordileone said the step was “purely pastoral, not political” and came after Pelosi, who has described herself as a “devout Catholic,” repeatedly rebuffed his efforts to reach out to her to discuss her abortion advocacy.
In a 2008 interview with C-SPAN, Pelosi said being denied Communion would be “a severe blow,” describing herself at the time as a “regular communicant,” the Catholic outlet reported.
Cordileone, 65, has been at odds with current San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy on the communion issue.
A year ago, McElroy opposed efforts to exclude President Joe Biden from receiving Holy Communion.
During that 2021 debate, Cordileone said in a pastoral letter: “When other avenues are exhausted, the only recourse a pastor has left is the public medicine of temporary exclusion from the Lord’s Table. This is a bitter medicine, but the gravity of the evil of abortion can sometimes warrant it.”
Saying such a ban could cause substantial damage to the Catholic Church, McEloy wrote that a prohibition would weaponize Communion — the delivery and consumption of a bread wafer believed by Catholics to be transformed into the body of Christ — and use it as a tool of political warfare.
“This must not happen,” the bishop spelled out in a 1,600-word essay posted in America, a Jesuit publication he contributes to.
McElroy has been making the case for months, including during a Georgetown University online forum Feb. 1 dubbed the “Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.”
McElroy said there is “immense sadness” among bishops and the church as a whole that more isn’t done to protect the unborn, but a Communion ban is the wrong step.
Representatives of the San Diego Diocese have been contacted for comment.
Cordileone, 65, was ordained by San Diego Bishop Leo Maher on July 9, 1982, and served as an associate pastor at St. Martin of Tours Parish in La Mesa until 1985. After earning a Doctor of Canon Law degree in 1989 from Gregorian University, he was appointed as priest secretary to Bishop Robert Brom.
He was named auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Diego in July 2002 and then bishop of the Diocese of Oakland in March 2009. Pope Benedict XVI named Cordileone archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco on July 27, 2012.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism
Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth
Ex Auxiliary crap no wonder no one believes the news