Archbishop of Pelosi: You can’t be a ‘good Catholic’ and support abortion
Bishop Salvatore Cordileone in 2011 (Marcus Donner / Reuters)
The Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, shared a message Sunday with Catholics such as President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who have condemned the new Texas abortion law: “You cannot be a good Catholic and support the expansion of a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings. “
Cordileone’s comment arrived in a rehearsal for him Washington Post days after a new law that prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected it went into effect in Texas. After the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision refusing to accept a challenge to the law last week, Biden and Pelosi issued statements criticizing the ruling and the law.
Both Democrats are Catholic; Pelosi is one of the most famous parishioners in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
On Sunday, Cordileone wrote about the duty of Catholics to challenge Catholic politicians who support abortion.
“This summer, we caused a ruckus over what is discussed whether public officials who support abortion should receive the sacrament of the Eucharist ”, Cordileone wrote. “We were accused of inappropriately injecting religion into politics, of getting where we didn’t belong.”
“I see things differently,” he said. “As I consider the duties that Catholic bishops have towards prominent lay people in public life who openly oppose the church’s teachings on abortion, I seek inspiration on how we should respond to the last great human rights movement in this country. , which is still in my living memory.
Cordileone recounted how former New Orleans Archbishop Joseph Rummel admitted black students to the seminary, ordered an end to segregation throughout the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and the removal of “colored” signs from churches. Rummel also closed a church over its refusal to accept a black priest and excommunicated several people who supported segregation.
“Rummel didn’t ‘stay in his lane,'” Cordileone said. Unlike other bishops throughout the history of this country, he did not prioritize keeping parishioners and the public happy over promoting racial justice. Instead, he began a long and patient campaign of moral suasion to change the views of white Catholics in favor of segregation. “
He points out that Rummel’s excommunication of the segregationists was not bad nor was it an example of “turning the Eucharist into a weapon” because Rummel “recognized that the prominent and high-profile public promotion of racism was outrageous: it violated fundamental Catholic teachings and basic principles of justice, and it also led others to sin. “
Cordileone said that abortion “kills a unique and irreplaceable human being” and that anyone who defends, finances or presents abortion as a legitimate option “participates in great moral evil.”
“The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence, but love, for both mother and child,” she said. “This is not inappropriate for a pastor to say. In any case, the response of Catholic political leaders to the situation in Texas highlights the need for us to say it louder. “
Cordileone’s essay comes months after the archbishop said that priests must deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic public figures who “are unwilling or unable to abandon” their “defense of abortion.”
“If you find that you are unwilling or unable to abandon your defense of abortion, you should not show up to receive Holy Communion,” the archbishop told Catholic public figures at the time. “To publicly affirm the Catholic faith and at the same time publicly reject one of its most fundamental teachings is simply dishonest.”
“If your pastors do not directly address your involvement in the evil of abortion, this may lead Catholics (and others) to assume that the Catholic Church’s moral teaching on the inviolable sanctity of human life is not taken seriously.” Cordileone said. . “The constant teaching of the Catholic Church since its inception, the repeated exhortations of each Pope in recent times up to and including Pope Francis, the frequent statements of the bishops of the United States, everything makes it clear what the teaching of Catholics is. The Church is in when it comes to abortion. “
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