Effort barring Pelosi from receiving Communion sees growing support among US bishops

Support is mounting behind efforts to formally bar House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion as a result of her unwavering pro-abortion convictions.

Recently in May, the speaker was banned from participating in the sacred rite by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, not despite the fact that Pelosi is Catholic, but rather precisely because she is Catholic.

“The church clearly teaches that abortion is a grave evil, and that public advocacy for — and support of — abortion is, objectively speaking, such a manifest grave sin,” Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample said Friday in a video post on Facebook.

“What Archbishop Cordileone did was actually an act of pastoral love and care for Speaker Pelosi and for all those entrusted to his pastoral care, who might have been led astray by her public support of the evil of abortion,” Sample said. “That’s why what Archbishop Cordileone did was the right thing.”

Pelosi was able to receive Holy Communion at least once in Washington, D.C., even after Cordileone’s decision, prompting a rebuke on Twitter from prominent pro-life Catholic priest, Fr. Frank Pavone.

“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,'” Cordileone had previously said in a letter to Pelosi.

He has so far been joined by three bishops who have announced similar bans against those who claim to espouse devout Catholicism but defy its tenets, Fox News reported.

“I have not publicly announced that someone is not to receive Communion in my diocese, but I have privately shared that directive with individuals who have continuously scandalized the church by holding a personal Catholic identity while also publicly advocating for abortion or other inherent moral evils,” Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington in Virginia, said in a podcast on May 25.

In addition to Burbridge and Cordileone, Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa in California and Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler in Texas have agreed that Pelosi would be denied Communion were she to attend any of the churches within their respective dioceses.

Vasa told The Washington Post that canon law “makes it clear that providing sacraments to someone prohibited from receiving them has its own possible penalties.”

“I have visited with the pastor at St. Helena and informed him that if the Archbishop prohibited someone from receiving Holy Communion then that restriction followed the person and that the pastor was not free to ignore it,” Vasa said in a statement.

Bishop Burbidge explained during a podcast last week that Cordileone is Pelosi’s “bishop and as that bishop the direction and guidance he provides is not limited to just a geographical area.”

These decisions “are not political for bishops. They’re moral and they’re spiritual. They’re the result of prayer and discernment,” he added.

Bishop Strickland said his ban on Pelosi receiving the sacrament is meant to be “medicinal” for her soul as he said the speaker is in peril of eternal damnation should she continue to deny the teachings of the Catholic Church.

“I expressed my support for Archbishop Cordileone’s decision to ban Nancy Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion because I believe this is the loving act of a true shepherd. Mrs. Pelosi adamantly supports abortion and thus adamantly opposes the teaching of the Church,” Strickland told Fox News Digital.

“Of course, her judgment is in the hands of the Lord but as shepherds, we are charged with the responsibility to teach the flock and to correct them when they are in error. To advocate for a person’s right to take innocent life, thus to advocate murder, is clearly contrary to Catholic teaching,” he warned.

Pope Francis said last year that he has “never refused the Eucharist to anyone,” and called Communion “a gift” and not “a prize for the perfect.” But he also condemned abortion in the same interview, explaining that “whoever has an abortion kills,” Fox News reported.

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16 thoughts on “Effort barring Pelosi from receiving Communion sees growing support among US bishops

  1. This isn’t just about the abortion issue. Pope Francis excommunicated the Mafia in 2014. Pelosi is Mafia and had no right to call herself a Catholic since then. The church is always damn slow to do the right thing and very quick to hide their wrong-doings.

  2. She had all the children she wanted, but you can’t. Lets keep the lies up that you have the right to choose and keep upping the ruse and maybe the mindless will want or get an abortion for spite. There…. are job and agendas will flourish. Remember the ones pushing these lies want to protect their bloodlines.

  3. “Growing support?” Bishops, and in fact, Popes should have uniformly dropped the hammer fifty years ago on the likes of Pelosi, Biden and the Kennedy dynasty. This is an example of the kind of squishy and selective enforcement of codified church laws that finally drove me away from the Catholic Church in 2004.

  4. How about coming down on Biden and the other Dems that believe it is ok to kill babies? The church is talking out of both sides of it mouth if they only sanction Biden!

  5. English language police here …

    ” …. those who claim to espouse devout Catholicism but defy its tenants … “

    TENETS!! Come on, writers, PLEASE learn English!

  6. Is there a revolt in the Catholic Church? These bishops are trying to uphold the values of the church, and their leader, the Pope, turns on these bishops. The Pope is bringing down the Catholic Church by denigrating its values, isn’t he?

    1. This is why the Lutherans don’t follow the Pope.
      And NO WAY would Pigosi be allowed Communion there!!

  7. IMO, given the church’s teachings, the same should happen to Biden. One priest, I think in S.C. did refuse him communion, but I haven’t seen any other upholding the teachings re: communion when it comes to him. Makes me wonder why. It’s obvious going to church and marching up to get communion is nothing more than a “be seen” event, casting for votes for them, IMO. Cafeteria Catholics, picking and choosing the teachings you want to abide by.

  8. When the east defied the west i was appalled. The catholic church needs to have a long talk with the DC church that’s giving these two communion.. it’s nothing but show on both sides and needs to stop immediately. Biden’s and Pelosi’s religion is sacrilegious!

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