Washington D.C., May 17, 2021 / 11:59 am (CNA).
The Archbishop of San Francisco on Monday responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said last week she was “pleased” with a recent Vatican statement on Communion.
Pelosi, who is Catholic and pro-abortion, had claimed that a May 7 Vatican letter to U.S. bishops instructed the bishops not to be “divisive” on the matter of Communion for pro-abortion politicians.
On Monday, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco – Pelosi’s home diocese – said that the Vatican actually supported “dialogue” between bishops and pro-abortion Catholic politicians “to help them understand the grave evil they are helping to perpetrate and accompany them to a change of heart.”
The Vatican also acknowledged the possibility of denying politicians Holy Communion if they persist in their cooperation with legal abortion, Cordileone said. The Church’s code of canon law paragraph 915 states that Catholics “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
“I’m happy to know that Speaker Pelosi said she is pleased with the letter,” Archbishop Cordileone said of the Vatican’s letter. “Speaker Pelosi’s positive reaction to Cardinal Ladaria’s letter, then, raises hope that progress can be made in this most serious matter.”
He emphasized that legal abortion in the United States has resulted in 66 million babies “murdered in their mothers’ wombs.”
“This is not a matter about which one can use judgment. It is a fact,” he said on Monday. “If we look around us and see what is happening in our society today, we will see that this fact once again demonstrates that violence begets violence.”
The archbishop in January said, regarding Pelosi’s support for legal abortion, “No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion.”
The Vatican letter which Pelosi cited was authored by the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – Cardinal Luis Ladaria – and directed to the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles.
Gomez had previously written the congregation, informing it that the U.S. bishops would be considering the situation of Catholics in public office who support permissive laws on abortion, euthanasia, or other evils.
In his letter, Cardinal Ladaria said that before issuing any “national policy” on Communion, the bishops must first undertake a “serene” dialogue among themselves to ensure unity on the Church’s teaching that Catholics cannot support pro-abortion laws.
Then, the bishops must dialogue with Catholic politicians who support such laws, to understand their positions “and their comprehension of Catholic teaching,” Cardinal Ladaria said.
After that, the bishops must discern the way forward to address the matter, he said.
If the bishops issued a “national policy” on Communion, he said that such a policy would need to reflect the consensus of the conference, uphold the rights of local ordinaries, and be situated in the broader context of worthiness to receive Holy Communion among all Catholics. In addition, it must not give the appearance of framing abortion and euthanasia as the only grave evils, the Vatican said.
Cardinal Ladaria had cited a 2004 letter from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratizinger to then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the head of the U.S. bishops, as a reference the U.S. bishops could use on the matter of Communion. He wrote that as it was a “private” communication, “insofar, therefore, as these principles are not published by the Conference, they may be of assistance in the preparation of the draft of your document.”
In his 2004 memo, Ratzinger applied canon law to the situation of Catholic politicians who are “consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws.” Such officials, Ratzinger said, were engaged in “manifest” and “formal cooperation” in grave sin.
He instructed that pastors meet with them and make clear their break with Church teaching, informing them that they should not receive Communion. If these officials persist in their advocacy, then “the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it.”
Ladaria also instructed that the 2004 letter should be read in light of the congregation’s 2002 note on Catholic participation in politics and the importance of safeguarding the rights of ordinaries.
Archbishop Cordileone said that the Vatican instructed that dialogue take place between bishops and public officials.
“In his letter, Ratzinger confirmed that consistently advocating for abortion and euthanasia constitutes formal cooperation in grave sin, and that bishops must dialogue with Catholics prominent in public life who do so in order to help them understand the grave evil they are helping to perpetrate and accompany them to a change of heart,” Cordileone said.
The 2004 letter, he added, said that “if these dialogues prove to be fruitless, then, out of respect for the Catholic belief of what it means to receive Holy Communion, the bishop must declare that the individual is not be admitted to Communion.”
Individual bishops have recently spoken out about admission to Communion.
Last week, Pelosi said “I think I can use my own judgment” when asked by EWTN News Nightly correspondent Erik Rosales about receiving Holy Communion.
Pelosi has long supported legal abortion and has advocated for taxpayer-funded abortion by repealing the Hyde Amendment. She has also supported the Equality Act, legislation that the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) has warned would “punish” religious groups opposed to the redefinition of marriage and transgender ideology.
She added that she was “pleased with what the Vatican put out on that subject” of Communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians, claiming that the Vatican’s statement “basically said ‘don’t be divisive on the subject’.”
In October 2019, Joe Biden was denied Communion at a parish in the Diocese of Charleston while he was campaigning for president. A diocesan policy stated that “Catholic public officials who consistently support abortion on demand are cooperating with evil in a public manner. By supporting pro-abortion legislation they participate in manifest grave sin, a condition which excludes them from admission to Holy Communion as long as they persist in the pro-abortion stance.”
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Kudos to Archbishop Cordileone again!
She takes refuge in the silly cliche sin of “Don’t be divisive”, which is no evil at all, and its use by the Vatican is another stupid and cowardly moment within a half century of hundreds of stupid and cowardly refusals by Church leadership to not sell out the opportunity to do something meaningful and forceful for the sake of hundreds of millions of innocent lives slaughtered with the help of God’s own Church because of the willful decision of its leadership to abandon testicular fortitude. Divisiveness is a positive virtue in confronting evil.
A miraculous transformation of Nancy Pelosi may be required, although Archbishop Cordileone is doing what he must. Her father Thomas D’Alesandro Jr, ‘boss’ mayor Baltimore, could intimidate criminals to return stolen religious articles. The speaker, perhaps the female version of chip off the old block initially housewife raised a family, had 5 children within 6 years, conceivably a rationale for her irrational strident pro choice policies [as opined by Taylor Marshall]. Freedom of conscience, mistakenly formulated by Courtney Murray SJ in Dignitatis Humanae omitting Church coercive authority, was a watershed for many Catholics to think independently of Church proscription. To an extent she’s a child of a tumultuous period, although we’re responsible for our choices, especially on the right of the unborn to life. Prayer and sacrifice may help Cordileone bring about that miracle. Besides love is better than internecine war.
“To an extent, she is a child of a tumultuous period . . .”
Yes, she and many others (not just politicians).
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2013/09/14/the-parable-of-the-perfect-father/
This is a very good article written by Carl Olson. As I indicated in another post, Speaker Pelosi is still feeding on the husks of intrinsic corruption. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco could use our sacrifice of prayer and fasting, as he puts forth the effort to bring her to understanding and repentance, so that, she can experience the loving embrace of the Eternal Father, who generously extends his mercy to His children who turn back from sin.. What joy in the Mystical Body of Christ would commence upon her return!