- Pelosi accuse the Archbishop of double standard for still giving sacrament to politicians who back the death penalty, and being ‘vehemently’ against LGBTQ rights
House speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned whether Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was holding a double standard for banning her from Communion for her position on abortion while keeping quiet about Republicans who support the death penalty.
‘I wonder about the death penalty, which I am opposed to. So is the church but they take no action against people who may not share their view,’ the California Democrat said Tuesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Cordileone said that the speaker was not to present herself for the Eucharist in his San Francisco archdiocese because her abortion views have become ‘more extreme’ and ‘more aggressive.’
Pelosi, who often publicly invokes her Catholic faith, added: ‘We just have to be prayerful, we have to be respectful. I come from a largely pro-life Italian American Catholic family, so I respect people’s views about that, but I don’t respect us foisting it onto others.’
Pelosi went after the archbishop for his anti-LGBTQ stance, and said his position was not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew, an argument she often makes to paint Republicans as opposed to helping the needy.
‘Now, our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights, too — in fact, he led the way in some of the initiatives on — an initiative on the ballot in California.
‘So this decision, taking us to privacy and precedent, is very dangerous in the lives of so many of the American people. And again, not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew.’https://www.youtube.com/embed/0up7R9H-zbY?rel=0&showinfo=1&hl=en-US
‘I wonder about the death penalty, which I am opposed to. So is the church but they take no action against ppl who may not share their view,’ the California Democrat said Tuesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe
She added that some Republicans claim they are against abortion but are really also against contraception, family planning and in-vitro fertilization.
‘This should never have been politicized. It should never have been politicized…And, you know what, it is also a cover for a lot of other things that the far right wants to accomplish.’
Catholic archbishops have broad authority over their diocese, and reversing Cordileone’s decision would require rare intervention from the Vatican.
On Sunday Pelosi was spotted at Mass in Washington, D.C. where she did receive Holy Communion.
The California Democrat attended the 9 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity in the Georgetown neighborhood, according to Politico.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington has not publicly commented on whether the Speaker can receive the Eucharist.
In the past, Gregory has expressed opposition to weighing in on whether Catholic politicians can take the Eucharist due to their political positions.
Last year, amid calls for President Biden to be denied communion over his position on abortion, the parish council of Holy Trinity released a statement which said that it ‘will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it.’
The council said ‘communion should be viewed ‘not as a prize for the perfect, but as a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak,” and added that ‘the great gift of the Holy Eucharist is too sacred to be made a political issue.’
But the bishop of Santa Rosa, Robert Vasa, told the Pillar Catholic that the ban on Pelosi would follow her to the parish where she attends Mass when she is staying at her nearby vacation home in Napa Valley.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said during a Friday interview that the California Democrat lawmaker’s views on abortion are getting ‘more extreme’ and said his ‘conscience’ made him act against her within the church.
He denied that his decision had anything to do with the leaked Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization showed a majority of justices were in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade.
He’s been called on to step down over the decision by an op-ed by the San Francisco Examiner’s Editorial Board, who accused Cordileone of acting ‘in open defiance’ of the Catholic Church’s current leader Pope Francis on Saturday.
‘The leaked decision and the Dobbs case really have nothing to do with the timing of it,’ Cordileone told the Jesuit publication America Magazine, adding that Pelosi ‘did meet with me and speak with me over the years a couple of times.’
‘But more recently, her advocacy for codifying the Roe decision into federal law—it’s becoming more and more extreme and more and more aggressive.’
The archbishop suggested he tried to reach out to Pelosi over the matter but to no avail.
‘I’ve been trying to speak with her about this. I’ve been debating this within my own conscience for many years, actually. So this is not something that has just come up recently,’ he said.
‘I’ve done a lot of prayer and fasting. So I’ve been struggling with this for a long time.’
He said in a statement on Friday that 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.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said he wrestled with his ‘conscience’ over banning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Communion
Cordileone previously waded into political waters as part of a push to ban President Joe Biden from Communion, which had run into opposition from Pope Francis.
A March Pew Research survey found that 67 percent of U.S. Catholics think Biden should be allowed to receive the Eucharist, 29 percent say he should not.
The fallout is over Pelosi’s push to codify federal abortion protections. The bill failed in the Senate after the Democratic leader successfully shepherded it through the House of Representatives.
Earlier this month, a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion revealed the judicial body’s conservative majority appears poised to return the issue of abortion to the states by overturning Roe v. Wade. If it happens, 26 states are poised to immediately ban or limit abortion.
Cordileone said that by banning Pelosi over the matter he was ‘following the advice that Pope Benedict’ had ‘sent in a letter to bishops here in the United States back in 2004.’
‘He gave us advice on how to approach this, specifically with politicians, Catholic politicians, and specifically on the two issues of abortion and euthanasia,’ he said.
‘And he said we need to meet, to dialogue, to try to move them down the path of conversion. And if after several attempts it comes to the point where it’s clear [that] this is not going to happen, then the bishop or the pastor, [Pope Benedict] says, is to declare that the person is not to be admitted to holy Communion.’
First published in Daily Mail (UK)
