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Nancy Pelosi doubles down on abortion support in response to Communion ban 

CNA Staff   By CNA Staff

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” on May 24, 2022. / Screenshot via MSNBC’s YouTube channel

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 24, 2022 / 12:13 pm (CNA).

Responding publicly for the first time to her archbishop barring her from Holy Communion in her home diocese, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remained defiant Tuesday in her support of abortion.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone announced May 20 that the California Democrat may no longer receive Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco after publicly supporting abortion as a Catholic politician. His decision, Cordilenoe said, is a pastoral one and not political.

Over the years, Pelosi has defended abortion while citing her Catholic faith. The Catholic Church considers abortion — the destruction of a human person — a grave evil.

On Tuesday, Pelosi gave no indication that her position on abortion, and how she speaks about it as a Catholic, will change.

“I wonder about the death penalty, which I am opposed to. So is the Church. But they take no action against people who may not share their view,” she said during MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show.

Pelosi did not say whether she intends to continue to present herself for Communion. Cordileone’s order is only applicable within the San Francisco Archdiocese, and although Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington has not commented publicly about Cordileone’s action, he has not instructed priests to refuse Communion to anyone.

Pelosi reportedly took Holy Communion at the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass on May 22 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, according to Politico Playbook, but the report did not identify the source of that information. A spokeswoman for the parish on Tuesday referred media questions about the report to the Archdiocese of Washington, which did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.

In response to Cordileone’s actions, Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California — where Pelosi’s Napa vacation home is located — has said that he, too, will bar Pelosi from Holy Communion.

During her appearance on “Morning Joe,” Pelosi directly mentioned Cordileone once, to criticize him for being “vehemently against LGBTQ rights.”

Host Joe Scarborough praised the speaker for living out the Gospel of Matthew by serving the “truly disadvantaged.”

Jesus does not mention abortion in the Gospels, Scarborough said. Instead, in Matthew 25, Jesus told his disciples “we would be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven if we gave water to the thirsty, fed the hungry, clothed the poor, and brought hope to the hopeless,” he said.

Pelosi claimed, without further explanation, that pro-life people largely reject this Gospel message.

“Thank you for referencing the Gospel of Matthew, which is sort of the agenda of the Church that is rejected by many who side with them on terminating a pregnancy,” she said. You can watch the interview in the video below.

Pelosi also appeared to refer to the leaked Supreme Court draft in the abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which signals that justices are preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide.

“This decision taking us to privacy and precedent is very dangerous in the lives of so many of the American people,” she said. “And, again, not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew.”

At another point, the speaker referenced her Catholic background.

“I come from a largely pro-life Italian-American Catholic family, so I respect people’s views about that,” she said, referring to abortion. “But I don’t respect us foisting it onto others.”

Pelosi also claimed that, as a Catholic, she has tried in vain to speak with Republicans in the past about supporting “what the Catholic Church was asking us to do for global family planning, natural family planning, which our law allows to happen.”

“I think it’s very insulting to women to have their ability to make their own decision hampered by politics,” Pelosi commented. “This should never have been politicized.”

Pelosi called abortion a “cover for a lot of other things that the far right wants to accomplish” and concluded that, now, a “woman’s decision” regarding abortion is a “kitchen table issue.”


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12 Comments

  1. Pelosi appears mask-like in this photo. So very sad. Only God knows how to soften hearts, and an Archbishop is His instruments. God bless Archbishop Cordileone and all other bishops who publicly support God’s efforts to mend the broken hard-hearted edges of so many lost children, no matter how old their age in calendar years.

    Every quote ascribed to Pelosi in this article is nonsensical sound issuing from brazenly bravely painted disordered lips. Nothing she can say except “Yes. I’m sorry. May God forgive me. Please pray for my soul,” has any meaning beyond gibberish. So many prayers have been said on Nancy’s behalf; it is to her shame that she has not yet availed herself of their efficacy.

    God bless Archbishop Cordileone.

  2. As for Politicizer Pelosi citing the Gospel of Matthew, now this from Christ: “Do not think that I have come to abolish Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). The Commandments, including #5.

  3. There’s that far-right smear again. I notice it’s trotted out pretty quickly by so-called progressives whenever someone has the audacity to not fall in line posthaste with their recommended viewpoint.

  4. What are the odds that Nancy Pelosi would have converted to Catholicism if she had not been raised as a Catholic, given the contents of her home-made worldview?

  5. If you don’t think people should have their ability to make their own decisions hampered by politics, you probably should not be a legislator. That is what laws do. They hamper people’s ability to make their own decisions.

  6. Instead of listening to her archbishop in his quest to put her on the path to salvation, Pelosi throws in a bunch of red herrings like capital punishment, alphabet agenda, and serving the poor. She fails to give chapter and verse in her referral to the Gospel of Matthew, likely because she has misread or failed to read the book. Archbishop Cordileone seeks to guide her to actually be a “devout Catholic,” and she not only rebuffs him, she muddies the waters of Catholic teaching. She doesn’t know enough to even be a false prophet.

  7. In referencing Matthew, Jesus takes for granted that all follow the 10 Commandments:
    Thou shalt not kill.
    As to Pro-Choice, in most cases, the woman has made her choice; the child is the
    consequence.

  8. This woman and her fellows who count themselves Roman Catholics while perpetuating the murder of tens of millions of innocents deserve only prayer for their eternal salvation. Their voice is no longer heard. They paint themselves scandal and abomination.

  9. Pelosi seems to be under the delusion that she can set the terms and theological basis of the Catholic religion of which she is a member. SHE wants to decide what is moral and what is not, what is permitted and what is not, what is a sin and what is not. She CANNOT. Only God can set the moral terms and He has delegated that to His church. For her to first, ignore the requests of the Archbishop for continued discussion and then to fly in his face by receiving communion after she has been barred, is flagrant disrespect. Receiving communion unworthily is a grave sin , for ALL Catholics, not just Pelosi. She may be able to get away with this stunt now but on Judgement day she will not. Evidently she does not care, which justifies the Archbishops decision all the more. For a supposedly “devout” Catholic she seems to think she can flout the rules with impunity. Which is NOT the sign of a “devout” Catholic at all. .

  10. “Jesus does not mention abortion in the Gospels, Scarborough said.”

    He didn’t have to. The Savior of the world came among us as a human infant, born into life the way all of us come to that happy state — except, of course, the 63-million victims of the pro-choice lie. Supercilious dolt that he is, Scarborough was simply kissing up to Pelosi. Not as the devout Catholic she claims to be, but as the devout statist that she is.

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