San Francisco’s Archbishop
Salvatore Cordileone
mentioned Friday he would bar House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
from receiving communion in her dwelling diocese. Mrs. Pelosi, a Catholic, has been on the middle of a Democratic push to codify abortion protections in federal regulation after a draft Supreme Court resolution overturning Roe v. Wade leaked this month. She has spent many years framing her political profession as an expression of her religion, all of the whereas working to increase abortion entry in defiance of Catholic doctrine.
In a letter to Mrs. Pelosi, Archbishop Cordileone mentioned he had beforehand mentioned along with her the church’s educating on the immorality of abortion. The archbishop mentioned finally Mrs. Pelosi stopped taking his calls. He felt the time had come to decide in regards to the religious penalties of Mrs. Pelosi’s sacramental life, each for her sake and for the great of his flock. His pals say he was reluctant to do it.
In Catholic theology, the Eucharist is the sacramental presence of Christ’s personal physique and blood. It can be an expression of the unity of the Church. Since the primary centuries of Christianity, communion has been accessible solely to these believers dwelling beneath the authority of their bishops and in obedience to Catholic doctrine.
Everybody sins, however there’s a distinction between struggling to get issues proper and publicly rejecting that wrestle altogether. Church regulation says a Catholic “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” shouldn’t be provided communion as a result of incoherence between life and apply causes religious hurt.
Archbishop Cordileone isn’t the primary American prelate to bar a Catholic politician from the sacrament. Illinois’ Bishop
Thomas Paprocki
banned two lawmakers over a state abortion invoice in 2019. But state legislators don’t have the identical stature because the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
At their annual assembly final 12 months, U.S. bishops debated how one can deal with pro-abortion Catholic politicians. Most agreed with Archbishop Cordileone that at a sure level the scandal of abortion advocacy requires a concrete sacramental response. Some theologically liberal bishops contemplate Archbishop Cordileone’s place to be “anti-Francis.” But
Pope Francis
himself mentioned final 12 months that whereas bishops ought to work as pastors with pro-abortion politicians for a change of coronary heart, such lawmakers “cannot take communion, because they are out of the community.”
The focus now shifts to how different bishops will react. Bishop
Robert Vasa
of Napa Valley, the place Mrs. Pelosi has a trip dwelling, mentioned Friday that the San Francisco ban will apply when she is in his diocese. But it isn’t doubtless that Cardinal
Wilton Gregory
of Washington, D.C., will uphold the ban. He has in contrast the prospect of sacramental self-discipline to a “gun on the table” throughout dialogue with pro-choice politicians. But dialogue shouldn’t be all the time fruitful. And on main ethical points, equivalent to abortion, euthanasia and the demise penalty, politics have lasting religious significance.
Archbishop Cordileone mentioned this week that when Catholics flout ethical actuality in political discourse, souls—and lives—grasp within the steadiness. And when souls grasp within the steadiness, pastors have an obligation to behave.
Mr. Flynn is editor and co-founder of Pillar Catholic.
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Appeared within the May 23, 2022, print version.
Source: www.wsj.com”