Earlier this month, Pelosi described abortion as an issue for religious institutions, not political institutions — and now she’s no longer welcome to take Communion at her church.
“The rule of law in our country should be respected,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on CBS News. “Women should be respected to make their own judgments with their family, their doctor, their god.”
The conservative Catholic archbishop of San Francisco said Friday that he will no longer allow Pelosi to receive Communion at her church because of her pro-choice positions.
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in he sent Pelosi a letter on April 7 expressing his concerns after she vowed to codify the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion into law because of the Texas law banning most abortions that will take effect if the high court overturns Roe. Cordileone also said Pelosi never responded.
Cordileone said he told Pelosi in the letter that she must either repudiate her support of abortion rights or stop speaking publicly about her Catholic faith and that if she didn’t, he would have no other choice but to declare she is not allowed to receive Communion.
“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,” Cordileone’s letter said.
Cordileone said in a separate letter Friday to church members that he asked six times to meet with Pelosi but that her office didn’t respond or told him she was busy.
“After numerous attempts to speak with her 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,” Cordileone wrote.
Cordileone over the past year has been among the most outspoken U.S. bishops advocating that Communion be denied to President Joe Biden and other politicians who support abortion rights.
However, each bishop has authority in his own diocese on this matter, and the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has affirmed that Biden is welcome to receive the sacrament there.
Pelosi remains free to receive the sacrament in other jurisdictions.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last November overwhelmingly approved a long-anticipated document on Communion that stopped short of calling for withholding the sacrament from politicians who support abortion rights but offered justifications for individual bishops to do so.
Pelosi has publicly spoken about her membership in the Catholic Church.
In 2019, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., accused Pelosi and the House Democrats of impeaching former President Donald Trump just because of their hatred for him. “This is just a fatal distraction on a president they don’t like,” he said on the House floor.
Pelosi was later asked whether she hated the former president.
“I don’t hate anybody. I was raised in a Catholic house,” she said at a press conference. “And as a Catholic, I resent your using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me… I pray for the president all the time. So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.”
Take a look —
JAMES ROSEN: Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?
NANCY PELOSI: I don’t hate anybody. … And as a Catholic, I resent your using the word “hate" in a sentence that addresses me. … I pray for the president all the time. So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that. pic.twitter.com/KgDHTlNRvo
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) December 5, 2019
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.