In September of last year, we examined the concept of the Roman Catholic Church denying the sacrament of communion to politicians who professed to be members of the Church while supporting abortion, such as John Kerry, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. At that time, we noted that Salvatore J. Cordileone, the Archbishop of San Francisco, had issued a letter “calling for Holy Communion to be withheld from public figures who support abortion rights.” While Cordileone did not mention Pelosi by name at that time, he did state that if “an ‘erring Catholic’ continues supporting abortion rights, even after conversations with church officials, a pastor’s ‘only recourse’ is to temporarily exclude them from the sacrament.”
Did Nancy Pelosi heed the Archbishop’s warning? Certainly not! Late last year, the “Democratic-controlled House voted 218-211 largely along party lines to pass…legislation called the Women’s Health Protection Act. Just one Democrat, Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, voted against the proposal…(t)he legislation follows enactment of a Texas law that effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.”
In fact, in the wake of the leak of the proposed Supreme Court opinion which would overturn Roe v. Wade (discussed in more detail here), the Speaker of the House doubled down on her support for abortion. “House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol facing the Supreme Court…calling on the justices to defend access to abortion on the eve of abortion rights protests in Washington and nationwide.”
Speaker Pelosi also “applauded the ‘righteous anger’ of abortion rights activists in a letter…to fellow House Democrats to encourage them to carry on the fight against the pro-life movement…'(w)ith this draft ruling striking down the nearly fifty-year-old precedent of Roe v. Wade and undermining the Constitutional right to privacy, Republicans would rip away women’s right to make the most intimate and personal decisions. If handed down, this decision by GOP-appointed Justices would mean that, for the first time in our history, America’s daughters will have less freedom than their mothers,’ Pelosi wrote.”
Given these actions by Speaker Pelosi, it should come as no surprise that Archbishop Cordileone took the next logical step. “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’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 915)” the Archbishop wrote in a public notification addressed directly to Nancy Pelosi. “I communicated my concerns to you via letter on April 7, 2022, and informed you there that, should you not publically repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.
“As you have not publically repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come. Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco…by means of this communication 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.” (Emphasis in original.)
There were the usual and expected responses to the Archbishop’s letter. “Several trends regarding the announcement found their way onto Twitter, including ‘#TaxTheChurch.'” “Jamie L. Manson, the president of Catholics for Choice — a nonprofit organization that pushes for reproductive freedom — decried the move as one rooted against reproductive rights. ‘Speaker Pelosi is devoted to her Catholic faith, and it is not lost on me that, as a woman, she is being singled out in this continued battle,’ she said in a statement. ‘It is one more step in a long line of attacks that the Church hierarchy has waged on women and their reproductive rights.'”
In understanding the actions of Archbishop Cortileone, it would be instructive to know just what is allowed by the Women’s Health Protection Act passed by the Pelosi-led House last fall.
According to the WHPA, “(a) General Rule.—A health care provider has a statutory right under this Act to provide abortion services, and may provide abortion services, and that provider’s patient has a corresponding right to receive such services, without any of the following limitations or requirements…(8) A prohibition on abortion at any point or points in time prior to fetal viability, including a prohibition or restriction on a particular abortion procedure…(11) A requirement that a patient seeking abortion services at any point or points in time prior to fetal viability disclose the patient’s reason or reasons for seeking abortion services, or a limitation on the provision or obtaining of abortion services at any point or points in time prior to fetal viability based on any actual, perceived, or potential reason or reasons of the patient for obtaining abortion services, regardless of whether the limitation is based on a health care provider’s degree of actual or constructive knowledge of such reason or reasons. ”
This language would provide for an abortion on demand, without any prohibition, for any reason, before “fetal viability.” How is “viability” defined? “The term ‘viability’ means the point in a pregnancy at which, in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, based on the particular facts of the case before the health care provider, there is a reasonable likelihood of sustained fetal survival outside the uterus with or without artificial support.” In other words, “viability” is whenever a “health care provider” says so. Note also the use of the broad term “health care provider,” and not the word “doctor.”
Further, “this Act supersedes and applies to the law of the Federal Government and each State government, and the implementation of such law, whether statutory, common law, or otherwise, and whether adopted before or after the date of enactment of this Act, and neither the Federal Government nor any State government shall administer, implement, or enforce any law, rule, regulation, standard, or other provision having the force and effect of law that conflicts with any provision of this Act, notwithstanding any other provision of Federal law, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. ”
Thus, it is not hyperbole in any way to describe this law, passed by the House of Representatives, as allowing for abortion up to a very flexible point during pregnancy, without any interference by any federal or state law to the contrary.
While acceptable to the Democratic majority in the House, this law was too extreme for the US Senate, which, “(i)n a 49-51 vote…rejected the Democratic legislation, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and all Republicans voting against the measure…(b)oth Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who support abortion rights, opposed the Democratic bill. They see that legislation as too expansive and are instead pushing a narrower alternative that would codify the Roe and Casey decisions the Supreme Court is expected to overturn…(According to Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia)) Democrats are ‘trying to make people believe that this is the same thing as codifying Roe v. Wade. And I want you to know, it’s not,’ he argued, referring to the bill’s ban on some state restrictions on the procedure currently allowed. ‘This is not the same. It expands abortion.’”
For a prominent Catholic politician to support a position in such direct opposition to the views of the church to which she professes to belong invites the actions of Archbishop Cordileone. As Rebecca Downs writes in Townhall, “(t)hose who make…arguments condemning the archbishop’s actions surely did not read this point made by the archbishop: ‘Please know that I find no pleasure whatsoever in fulfilling my pastoral duty here. Speaker Pelosi remains our sister in Christ. Her advocacy for the care of the poor and vulnerable elicits my admiration. I assure you that my action here is purely pastoral, not political. I have been very clear in my words and actions about this.’ Archbishop Cordileone is not wading into political matters of the U.S. Congress. He is fulfilling his pastoral duty to lead a member of the Church back into the light. Speaker Pelosi remains the speaker.”
Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church remains disunited on this issue. “Despite Cordileone’s clear declaration, Pelosi (recently) received Holy Communion at the 9 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity in Georgetown.” Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington DC has “largely dodged the issue of whether to give pro-choice politicians Communion…(h)e said that the bishops are ‘not there as police, we’re there as pastors, and as pastors, we certainly have to teach the faith of the Church, we have to be true to the Church’s heritage of faith, but we also have to bring people along with us. It is not simply a matter of pointing out their errors.'”
Cardinal Gregory would do well to review his Catechism; “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life… cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense.” When a politician, engaged in a secular occupation, supports and advocates for abortion rights, that is a matter between that politician and their constituents. However, when that politician professes to be a member of a faith that absolutely and unequivocally renounces the practice of abortion, a representative of that faith has every right to take measures to correct that member. Archbishop Cordileone is acting in accordance with the teachings of his Church. It is a simple matter of fact that Nancy Pelosi is not.
Judge John Wilson (ret.) served on the bench in NYC.
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