San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone responded to a question about the timing of his decision to ban House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) from receiving communion over her support for abortion rights.
During an interview for America, the magazine of the Jesuits of the United States, host Gloria Purvis asked, “With all that’s going on right now – with Dobbs v. Jackson and the leaked opinion that Roe could be overturned – why make this decision now?”
He responded, “The leaked decision and the Dobbs case really have nothing to do with the timing of it.”
Cordileone pointed out Pelosi did speak with him a “couple of times” over the years.
He explained, “More recently, her advocacy for codifying the Roe decision into federal law—it’s becoming more and more extreme and more and more aggressive.”
Cordileone told Purvis he has been “trying to speak with her about this,” adding, “I’ve been debating this within my own conscience for many years, actually. So this is not something that has just come up recently. I’ve been discerning this.”
The archbishop went on to label Pelosi’s support for abortion a “scandal.”
“Scandal is an action that would lead others into error or into sin,” Cordileone said.
He added, “So the scandal here…is that someone who is strongly advocating for something as evil as abortion and taking Communion creates confusion among people. And they can begin to think that it is acceptable for a Catholic to believe this.”
Check out the interview below:
Commenting on Pelosi’s faith, Cordileone explained, “It really is important to her to be Catholic, and she feels devotion in her heart.”
He continued, “Which makes me perplexed at why she would be so forceful on this issue as a politician.”
Cordileone penned a letter to Pelosi Friday informing her of the decision, as IJR reported.
“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,” he said in the letter.
The letter continues, “Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 915).”
NPR noted after Texas passed a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, Pelosi vowed to codify the right to the procedure.