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Archbishop Cordileone calls abortion bill ‘child sacrifice,’ urges prayer and fasting

Joe Bukuras   By Joe Bukuras for CNA

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone is pictured in a file photo celebrating Mass outside the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption as part of a rosary rally. (CNS photo/Dennis Callahan, Archdiocese of San Francisco)

Washington D.C., Sep 22, 2021 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The Archbishop of San Francisco warned that an abortion bill to be voted on in Congress this week amounts to “child sacrifice.” He called on Catholics to pray and fast for the defeat of the bill.

“This proposed legislation is nothing short of child sacrifice,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a Tuesday statement regarding the Women’s Health Protection Act (H.R. 3755).

The bill, introduced by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), recognizes the “statutory right” of women to have abortions. It also states the “right” of doctors, certified nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners and doctor’s assistants to perform abortions. It prohibits many limitations on abortion, such as state pro-life laws requiring ultrasounds or waiting periods before abortions.

“Any reasonable person with a basic sense of morality and inkling of decency cannot but shudder in horror at such a heinous evil being codified in law,” Cordileone said.

The bill overrides prohibitions on “pre-viability” abortions, and would also allow for late-term abortions without “meaningful” limits, the U.S. bishops’ conference has warned, calling it “the most radical abortion bill of all time.” The bill is scheduled to be considered by the House this week.

“This deceptively-named, extreme bill would impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy through federal statute,” wrote Archbishop Joseph Naumann, chair of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee, in a Sept. 15 letter to members of Congress.

“It would force all Americans to support abortions here and abroad with their tax dollars,” he added, and “would also likely force health care providers and professionals to perform, assist in, and/or refer for abortion against their deeply-held beliefs, as well as force employers and insurers to cover or pay for abortion.”

Archbishop Cordileone on Tuesday said the bill “shows to what radical extremes the supposedly ‘Pro-Choice’ advocates in our country will go to protect what they hold most sacred: the right to kill innocent human beings in the womb.”

He expressed support for Archbishop Naumann’s warning about the bill, and advocated for members of Congress to instead pass legislation supporting both mothers and children.

Cordileone called it “especially shameful that any self-professed Catholic would be implicated in such an evil, let alone advocate for it.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a Catholic who resides in the San Francisco archdiocese, announced the House vote on the bill earlier this month after a Texas pro-life law went into effect restricting most abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat. She vowed to “enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America.”

Cordileone pointed to Pope Francis’s recent statements calling abortion “murder,” during a press conference on a papal flight.

“This principle is so clear, and to those who cannot understand, I would ask two questions: is it right to kill a human life to solve a problem?  Scientifically, it is a human life.  The second question: is it right to hire a hitman to solve a problem?’” Pope Francis said.

Archbishop Cordileone on Tuesday said that the Women’s Health Protection Act “is surely the type of legislation one would expect from a devout Satanist, not a devout Catholic.”

He concluded with a call for “all Catholics in our country immediately to pray and fast for members of Congress to do the right thing and keep this atrocity from being enacted in the law.”

“A child is not an object to be thrown away, and neither is a mother’s heart,” he said. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the answer to a woman in a crisis pregnancy is not violence but love.  This is America.  We can do better.”


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10 Comments

  1. What you have written here – your grace – is the – ‘ GOSPEL TRUTH’. We need to cry to God through the hands of our Blessed Mother Mary to help us combat this culture of death eroding our world of today.

  2. “Any reasonable person with a basic sense of morality and inkling of decency cannot but shudder in horror at such a heinous evil being codified in law,” Cordileone said. The crux of the issue is in the definition of any “reasonable person.” The height of self-absorption is killing another human being for your own “well-being” or convenience. There is a lack of gratitude for one’s own life when supporting the killing of another. What if every “mother” decided that her life and convenience was paramount? My mother was less than wonderful, but I am grateful that she didn’t kill me before I had a chance to live in this world.

  3. Well, Archbishop, elections have consequences, and thanks to your “brother” bishops who shilled for Biden, this is what we have, isn’t it? Prayer and fasting? Persuading politicians and legislators? Let’s start with persuading bishops. And then we can try to regain ground with American Catholics who drifted to Biden and democrats, thanks to those “brother” bishops and our pope. Wait, excuse me, we need to circle those wagons, don’t we?

    • Amen!!! As loudly as possible. Our own shepherds have sold American Catholics down the river, for a mess of pottage: government money for their pet projects. We need to clean house, and perhaps the Lord will do that…it will be horrendous but sorely needed. We need names of bishops…so we can stop funding their projects. If we want to give to the poor, the government has programs for them.

  4. Why not go out on a limb, and after the vote have the bishops publish which party voted at least 99% for the bill, if not 100%. Bishops call for us to contact our congressman on these types of bills, but they never really say which party is promoting and voting for these bills to kill unborn babies. It seems they don’t want to offend the party of death so that the government funds keep coming for the things they care most about.

  5. I am disappointed by some of the comments here at CWR in reaction to Abp.Cordileone’s courageous and articulate teaching. The task is gargantuan. Check out Russill Shaw’s article today, “Changing hearts and minds more difficult than changing abortion laws”. It is clear to me that Abp. Cordileone is all about changing hearts and minds and that he is under no illusion that a quick fix is on the horizon.

  6. The perfect example of the one big difference between a socialist/democrat and a Republican.One Champions Love & Life the other Hate,Death, & Misery.There is NO “Gray”
    Area.Science proves this so.Even after 60 Million of Gods Creations erased.It’s still never enough for a socialist/democrat.

  7. By their actions in the past ‘catholics’ such as Pelosi, Biden, Lieu et. al have excommunicated themselves, but so far there has been no Bishop who has, in effect, made that ‘official’.

    It seems to me that that time is now fast approaching, and that Archbishop Cordileone will be the one to do it. At that point a great battle will be joined, and the MSM in all their perfumed absurdity and in high dudgeon (I don’t use that word much) will raise the momentuous issue of ‘separation of church and state’, proving once and for all, (as if there were the need for any more proof), that – they just don’t get it.

    Hopefully I can shed a few unneeded pounds as my part of the battle.

  8. and it is so “re-freshing to her Nancy Pelosi’s response to the honorable Archbiship, by quoting scripture and implying that abortion (infanticide)is acceptable because it falls under God’s giving us “Free Will.” You know else quotes scripture like that? SATAN!

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