OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Archbishop of San Francisco who banned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion received some tough news from the Vatican.
On Sunday Pope Francis promoted San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy to the rank of Cardinal. Bishop McElroy has been an outspoken opponent of banning pro-abortion politicians from receiving Holy Communion, Fox News reported.
In the process, the pope stepped over San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who gave Speaker Pelosi the ban, for the position.
McElroy, one of 21 new cardinals Pope Francis announced Sunday, will be installed on Aug. 27 at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the diocese of San Diego announced.
The San Diego bishop warned against the idea of denying Communion to pro-choice politicians in 2021 when U.S. bishops were considering altering their policy on Communion, which Catholics also call the Eucharist.
“The proposal to exclude pro-choice Catholic political leaders from the Eucharist is the wrong step,” the new cardinal said in Jesuit magazine America. “It will bring tremendously destructive consequences—not because of what it says about abortion, but because of what it says about the Eucharist.”
He said that “[t]he Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in political warfare. This must not happen.”
But Archbishop Cordileone disagrees, as he explained his decision in a letter to the Speaker.
“The Second Vatican Council, in its Decree on the Church in the Modem World, Gaudium et spes, reiterated the Church’s ancient and consistent teaching that ‘from the first moment of conception life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes’. Christians have, indeed, always upheld the dignity of human life in every stage, especially the most vulnerable, beginning with life in the womb. His Holiness, Pope Francis, in keeping with his predecessors, has likewise been quite clear and emphatic in teaching on the dignity of human life in the womb,” he said in the letter.
“This fundamental moral truth has consequences for Catholics in how they live their lives, especially those entrusted with promoting and protecting the public good of society. Pope St. John Paul II was also quite consistent in upholding this constant teaching of the Church and frequently reminded us that “those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a ‘grave and clear obligation to oppose’ any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them” (cf. Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the participation of Catholics in political life [November 24, 2002], n. 4, §1). 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’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 915),” the Archbishop said.
“In striving to follow this direction, I am grateful to you for the time you have given me in the past to speak about these matters. Unfortunately, I have not received such an accommodation to my many requests to speak with you again since you vowed to codify the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in federal law following upon passage of Texas Senate Bill 8 last September. That is why I communicated my concerns to you via letter on April 7, 2022, and informed you there that, 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,” he said.
“As you have not publicly repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come. Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be “concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care” (Code of Canon Law, can. 383, §1), by means of this communication, I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy 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,” he said.
