House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s archbishop, the Most Reverend Salvatore Cordileone, revealed in a recent interview that he has had conversations with the speaker about abortion. The archbishop also said that Speaker Pelosi is “respectful enough” not to try to receive communion from him because of her stance on abortion.
Archbishop Cordileone spoke with The Daily Caller’s Mary Margaret Olohan about a recent pastoral letter he wrote urging Catholic politicians who advocate for abortion not to receive communion. The letter, Before I Formed You in the Womb I Knew You: A Pastoral Letter on the Human Dignity of the Unborn, Holy Communion, and Catholics in Public Life, addresses the scientific basis for why life begins at fertilization, and why pro-abortion Catholic politicians should refrain from receiving communion.
“High profile Catholics, like President Biden and Nancy Pelosi, who are using their platforms to advocate for abortion… if [they] showed up at a mass you were saying, and came to your communion line, would you be comfortable giving them Holy Communion?” Olohan asked in the interview.
In his answer, the archbishop emphasized the importance of priests and bishops having a conversation with pro-abortion Catholic politicians under their care “so they understand the error of their ways, so they understand what the teaching of the Church is.”
Speaking specifically of Pelosi, who is a resident of Archbishop Cordileone’s diocese, he said, “I have had such conversations with Speaker Pelosi, she knows that I stand by Church teaching, and I know she’s respectful enough not to do anything so provocative.”
“In the case of President Biden or any other prominent Catholic, I think what I would do is if I knew that they were coming into the area here and planned to attend mass, I would try to have those conversations as well ahead of time,” he added.
Regarding the problem caused by high profile Catholics who support abortion, the archbishop called it a “scandal,” adding, “in the case of someone so prominent as the president of the United States, again this is a scandal, and it’s causing confusion in the minds of our Catholics… That’s alarming to me, that anyone would doubt that a Catholic could favor something so evil as abortion.”
In his pastoral letter, the archbishop said that he trembles that if he doesn’t challenge Catholics under his care who advocates for abortion, “both they and I will have to answer to God for innocent blood.”
Related article:
Catholic Archbishop Warns Pro-Abortion Politicians Not to Receive Communion
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