House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Hits Back At Archbishop After Communion Ban

SAN FRANCISCO — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi clapped back Tuesday at the archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, who barred her from receiving Communion over her support of abortion rights.

As San Francisco Patch previously reported, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Friday said Pelosi was not to be admitted to Holy Communion. The archbishop said he made "numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, an (sic) the danger to her own soul she is risking."

Cordileone, 65, a native of San Diego, has led the San Francisco Archdiocese for a decade after serving four years as bishop in Oakland. He said the move to ban Pelosi, a Democrat, was "purely pastoral, not political," Catholic News Agency reported.

On Tuesday, Pelosi talked with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe" about the ban, and said she respects that people have opposing views but not when they impose them on others.

“I respect people’s views about that. But I don’t respect us foisting it onto others," Pelosi said.

She added: “Our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights. In fact, he led the way in an initiative on the ballot in California.”

Pelosi said the most vocal opponents on the abortion debate are also against contraception, family planning and in vitro fertilization.

"It's a blanket thing, and they use abortion as the frontman for it while they try to undo so much," Pelosi said.

Pelosi openly questioned the archbishop's stance on the death penalty, a practice she and the church oppose, but is often supported by other lawmakers.

"They don't take action against people who may not share their view," Pelosi said. "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. We just have to be prayerful. We have to be respectful."

Pelosi has outwardly supported abortion. Earlier this month, she and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement blasting a reported draft of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

"If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past fifty years — not just on women but on all Americans," the statement said.

They added: "The Republican-appointed Justices' reported votes to overturn Roe v. Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church holds that "human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception."

"From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life," it said. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."

Cordileone wrote a separate letter to priests of his archdiocese, saying the decision was "simply application of Church teaching."

"There are those who speak of such actions as I am taking as 'weaponizing' the Eucharist. However, this is simply application of Church teaching," he said.