Salvatore J. Cordileone gives a blessing sing during a ceremony to install him as the new archbishop of San Francisco at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco on Oct. 4, 2012. (Marcio Jose Sanchez - Pool / AP)
'Great Moral Evil': Fed-Up Archbishop Unleashes on Pelosi and Biden
By Isa Cox
September 7, 2021 at 2:55pm
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are famous for professing adherence to the Roman Catholic faith — and notorious for championing policies that irrefutably violate the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Speaker, for her part, has earned herself indirect rebuke from her own archbishop on more than one occasion. But after her hysterical objection to the Texas heartbeat bill that was enacted last week, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone is now pointedly arguing that Catholic leaders have every right to deny Holy Communion to those politicians who so distinctly disobey the church.
In an Op-Ed for The Washington Post over the weekend, Cordileone, who oversees the diocese Pelosi belongs to, wrote that “As a faith leader in the Catholic community, I find it especially disturbing that so many of the politicians on the wrong side of the preeminent human rights issue of our time are self- professed Catholics.”
He referenced Biden’s vow to take a “whole-of-government approach” to fight the Texas legislation, while his parishioner Pelosi denounced the “cowardly, dark-of-night” Supreme Court decision to allow the heartbeat bill to go forward.
Cordileone noted that as he and other Catholic leaders this summer discussed whether vehemently pro-abortion politicians like Biden and Pelosi should be denied the Eucharist over their views, the bishops were criticized for “inappropriately injecting religion into politics, of butting in where we didn’t belong.”
“When considering what duties Catholic bishops have with respect to prominent laymen in public life who openly oppose church teachings on abortion, I look to this country’s last great human rights movement — still within my living memory — for inspiration on how we should respond.”
The bishop pointed to the acts of civil rights movement-era Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans, who, “Unlike several other bishops throughout this country’s history, did not prioritize keeping parishioners and the public happy above advancing racial justice.”
No, Rummel certainly did not “stay in his lane” when it came to racial segregation, as Cordileone noted.
Not only did Rummel admit black students to Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans and order an end to segregation and the removal of “white” and “colored” signs in archdiocese churches, but he also excommunicated prominent white Catholics who opposed his efforts to uphold church teachings on unity and fellowship among God’s creatures.
“Racial segregation as such is morally wrong and sinful because it is a denial of the unity and solidarity of the human race as conceived by God in the creation of Adam and Eve,” Rummel wrote in a 1956 pastoral letter.
“Was that wrong? Was that weaponizing the Eucharist?” Cordileone asked of Rummel’s bold offensive against segregation.
“In our own time, what could be a more egregious ‘denial of the unity and solidarity of the human race’ than abortion?”
“Abortion kills a unique, irreplaceable human being growing in his or her mother’s womb. Everyone who advocates for abortion, in public or private life, who funds it or who presents it as a legitimate choice participates in a great moral evil,” he declared.
“Abortion is therefore the most pressing human rights challenge of our time.”
Cordileone pointed to the millions of babies that have been destroyed and millions of women who have been harmed by abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which effectively legalized the practice in the United States.
He also praised the state of Texas for investing $100 million to fund crisis pregnancy centers, which support women by offering resources, classes, love and support rather than a means to end the life of their unborn child.
The Catholic Church has never relented on its pro-life position, even as prominent “Catholic” politicians have wholly and openly embraced abortion while still pointing to their supposed faith to garner popularity among faith voters.
“You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government- approved right to kill innocent human beings,” Cordileone wrote. “The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence but love, for both mother and child.”
“This is hardly inappropriate for a pastor to say. If anything, Catholic political leaders’ response to the situation in Texas highlights the need for us to say it all the louder.”
He could not possibly be more correct, and Pelosi herself would have a difficult time criticizing Rummel for using his position to end support for the godless practice of segregation within the Catholic Church.
Abortion is no different. It is an assault on God’s creation, a position that asserts we, mankind, know better about the value of human life than the one who crafts unborn babies in the womb.
Pelosi has put her own disgusting and condescending morality when it comes to abortion on display often, once pointing to her own Catholic faith to argue that women less privileged than she is ought to be able to destroy their unborn children in the womb.
“As a devout Catholic and mother of five in six years, I feel that God blessed my husband and me with our beautiful family — five children in six years almost to the day,” Pelosi said in July while discussing the Democrats’ spending bill which excluded Hyde Amendment restrictions on public funding for abortion.
“But that may not be what we should — it’s not up to me to dictate that that’s what other people should do, and it’s an issue of fairness and justice for poorer women in our country.”
This earned her a short and blunt response from Cordileone:
“Let me repeat: No one can claim to be a devout Catholic and condone the killing of innocent human life, let alone have the government pay for it,” he said in a statement.
“The right to life is a fundamental — the most fundamental — human right, and Catholics do not oppose fundamental human rights.”
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