Guest Post: The grim realities behind barring Nancy Pelosi from Communion Part I

By Robert G. Marshall

Editor's comment; God bless Bob Marshall. I've known him for about fifty years and he is a staunch and faithful advocate of the little ones in the womb and their parents. Abortion doesn't just kill a baby. It kills the love between the man and the woman who conceived the infant together. It kills their souls as well. We must pray that those who commit abortion and those who advocate it, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who rivals Lady Macbeth in her cold, murderous heart, repent and return to the Lord of Life. Nancy hasn't much longer on planet earth, and it is long past time for her to examine her conscience. How many have lost their souls influenced by her scandals? 

As I've said before, Nancy and I have four things in common. First of all, we are both Catholic and attended Catholic schools all the way through college. We share a birthday (she is seven years older). We share an alma mater, Trinity College (now a university) in Washington, D.C. And we both have five children. I pray for Nancy and have sent her letters and Mass cards which are not acknowledged which never surprises me. 

What a powerful witness for truth could she be if she publicly acknowledged her sins against life (like Bernard Nathanson did) and became a pro-life warrior. Where there's life, there's hope. Please pray for Nancy today. My comments are in red.

In what is surely an American First, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, Hi Excellency, Salvatore Cordileone, informed Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and third in line to be President, that she is not to received Communion, "until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance. The San Francisco Examiner, a very Leftist newspaper, editorialized, “In open defiance of Pope Francis, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Friday banned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from taking Holy Communion here in her home diocese. The reason? Her strong support of women’s abortion rights.”  [This occurred last May. In June, Nancy received Communion at the Vatican in a clear move to repudiate her bishop. According to Church doctrine, every Communion Nancy receives is a mortal sin of sacrilege. St. Paul reminds people like Nancy who receive the Body of Christ unworthily, "eat judgment unto themselves."]

Actually, Pelosi is more than just a strong supporter of abortion. Pelosi described herself at a “Catholic” Georgetown University meeting, “I am a rabid supporter of a woman’s right to choose.…” [She is indeed a "rabid" hater, not only of the baby in the womb, but of anyone who disagrees with the satanic agenda being pushed by the Democrats including transgender child abuse.] San Francisco Archbishop Cordileone had previously alerted House Speaker Pelosi (4/7/22) that she had crossed a line by announcing that she would support codifying 

the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision in Federal law, noting, “should you not publicly 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.”

The timing was not political. Archbishop Cordileone had been in “dialogue” with the Speaker on the abortion question for at least ten years. The Archbishop said “I’ve been debating this within my own conscience for many years…. I’ve consulted with people...who would have different perspectives on the situation.... I’ve done a lot of prayer and fasting.... I really would prefer not to do this. But I cannot in my conscience allow the situation to continue and cause this scandal.…”

Pelosi Tries to Defend Herself

Speaker Pelosi was a guest (5/24/22) on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” TV program hosted by former Democrat Congressman Joe Scarborough and his wife, Mika Brzezinski. Joe Scarborough asked Speaker Pelosi, “...what do you say to Catholics who see what’s happening to you...why you have an archbishop taking a step like this?”

Pelosi claimed that Archbishop Cordileone, in denying her Holy Communion, was “not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew,” which she identified as “the agenda of the Church.” However, the Gospel of Matthew undermines Pelosi’s case as it states (18:15–17) “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church.”

Pelosi questioned the consistency of Archbishop Cordileone in denying Communion to Catholic public officials for abortion support, but not for death penalty support. “I wonder about death penalty, which I’m opposed to. So is the Church, but they take no action against people who may not share their view.” But in 2004, Cardinal Ratzinger , writing specifically on the question of Catholic politicians who support the death penalty noted:

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia. [Abortion and euthanasia are intrinsically evil; there is no way they can ever be legitimate.  The death penalty is not. Governments can legitimately apply the death penalty to protect the common good.]

When Pope Francis modified the Catholic Catechism to say capital punishment should not be used, he did not state that the death penalty was ever lacking in justice or that it was “evil in itself,” as popes have said about abortion for centuries.

Cardinal Ladaria, who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and therefore speaks for Pope Francis, sent a letter (8/1/18) to the U. S. Catholic Bishops explaining Francis’s death penalty change: “the death penalty...can be justified if it is ‘the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor,’ even if in reality ‘cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender today are very rare, if not practically non-existent.’” (n. 2267).

One commentator noted that while Pope Francis teaches the death penalty is, “‘no longer admissible’ as a general norm...it is not infallible; and therefore, it does not require the assent of divine faith on the part of the faithful....the new formulation of the Catechism...desires... respectful dialogue with civil authorities, to encourage the creation of conditions that allow for the elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect.”

Pelosi’s Catalog of Abortion Support

MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host, Mika Brzezinski referred to recent Senate action on the grossly misnamed Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) (S 4132) which most assume codifies Roe. Neither the Senate (S 4132) nor the House version (HR 3755) of the morally grotesque Women’s Health Protection Act merely “codify” the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Both versions of the bill expand abortion way beyond Roe.

The Catholic Bishop’s Secretariat for Pro Life Activities compiled a list of present federal court approved state or federal laws legal even under Roe v. Wade . All of these current state and federal provisions would be illegal under Pelosi’s WHPA pro abortion legislation:

• Prohibit certain types of abortion, abortions done by non-physician; regulate or restrict telemedicine abortions, restrict tax funded abortion or the use of government facilities for abortion procedures or drugs;
• Require parental notice or consent, informed consent, or waiting periods for abortion;
• Require credentialing of abortion providers;
• Establish minimum safety standards for clinics;
• Provide conscience exemptions for health care personnel, institutions or individuals from having to provide or refer for abortions or to cover induced abortion in health insurance. [These are all common-sense restrictions. The government has no right to coerce citizens into participating in the willful murder of babies in the womb. Parents have a right to be informed about the decisions of their minor children and, in fact, not informing them can lead to the injury and death of girls from unrecognized complications of abortion. All facilities that provide surgical care should be regulated. Abortionists often get a pass leading to horror shows like the Gosnell butchery in Philadelphia.]

Bishops honoring Archbishop Cordileone’s Communion directive regarding denial of Holy Communion for Speaker Pelosi include as of May 24, 2022 (source: National Catholic Register):

• Michael Burbidge, Arlington, VA
• Michael Barber, Oakland, CA
• Robert Vasa, Santa Rosa, CA
• Samuel Aquila, Archdiocese of Denver, CO
• Thomas Paprocki, Springfield, IL
• Joseph Naumann, Kansas City, KS
• James D. Conley, Lincoln, NE
• Paul S. Coakley, Oklahoma City, OK
• Liam Cary. Baker, OR
• Joseph Strickland, Tyler Texas
• Thomas Daly, Spokane, WA
• David Ricken, Green Bay, WI
• Donald Hying

Article continued tomorrow....

Bob Marshall served 26 years in the Virginia House of Delegates and was the chief House sponsor of the 2006 voter-approved Virginia Marriage Amendment and a ban on late term abortion. He recently wrote Reclaiming the Republic: How Christians and Other Conservatives Can Win Back America (TAN Books). Previously, he co-authored Blessed are the Barren, a social history of Planned Parenthood (Ignatius Press). Finally, don’t miss Bob’s Civics Lesson for Catholics in the Catholic Culture Podcast Episode 17. See the full bio.