Archbishop of San Francisco announcing that Speaker Nancy Pelosi can no longer receive Holy Communion due to her position on abortion.
Salvatore Cordileone announced Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is barred from receiving Holy Communion due to her pro-abortion stance -- escalating a decades-long tension between the Roman Catholic Church and Democratic politicians on abortion. Cordileone has written to the California Democrat, informing Pelosi that she should not present herself for Holy Communion at Mass, and that priests will not distribute communion to her if she does present herself. "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,'" he says in the letter.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is unambiguous on the question of abortion, for either procuring one or assisting in the practice: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion," the catechism says. "This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.""Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law," it says, before calling abortion and infanticide "abominable crimes."