House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Questions Archbishop's Decision Regarding Communion Ban
NEW YORK — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned whether San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was applying a double standard by banning her from receiving Holy Communion because she supports abortion rights.
During an appearance Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the California Democrat said, “I wonder about the death penalty, which I’m opposed to. So is the church, but they take no actions against people who may not share their view.”
The comments come after Cordileone notified Pelosi of his decision on May 19, saying he made the determination “after numerous attempts to speak with [Pelosi] to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating.”
READ: Religious Press Suffers Major Blow With Planned Shuttering Of CNS, Catholic New York
“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 unless and until she publicly repudiates her support for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil in the sacrament of Penance,” he wrote in a letter posted to the archdiocese website.
Since Cordileone’s announcement, several bishops have publicly made it known that they would also deny Pelosi the Eucharist.
The move comes after it was revealed earlier this month in a leaked draft decision that the Supreme Court is poised to roll back Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States.
Pelosi, like many in her party, openly supports abortion rights. President Joe Biden, who is also Catholic, has joined Pelosi in calling to expand federal abortion rights in the wake of what the Supreme Could could ultimately do once a decision is made public.
“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 told MSNBC. “Our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights. He led the way in some of the issues, an initiative on the ballot in California.”
Pelosi added that the pending Supreme Court ruling regarding abortion “is very dangerous in the lives of so many of the American people. They’re not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew.”
Politico reported that Pelosi attended Mass this past Sunday in Washington, where she received Communion. She was spotted at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, a parish where Biden has also attended Mass.
Catholic archbishops have power within their diocese, but Cordileone’s edict does not extend outside his geographic jurisdiction.
The Archdiocese of Washington has not publicly commented on the Pelosi ban. The archdiocese’s communications office erroneously told a reporter on Monday that media requests related to the speaker’s denial of Communion “will be ignored.”
A reporter with the Washington Examiner had contacted the Archdiocese of Washington, led by Cardinal Wilton Gregory, for comment since Pelosi spends much of her time in the nation’s capital. The reporter received an email response from the communications office in error.
“Just sharing for you to know what comes in,” the email read. “Email since Saturday, when I last checked the comms inbox has just been a couple of random people wanting to tell the Cardinal to bring down the hammer on Pelosi. Aside from Jack Jenkins at Religion News Service, this is the only new media inquiry. It will be ignored, too.”
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.