On May 20, 2022, shockwaves went out in Catholic America and beyond when San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone publicly banned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from receiving Holy Communion due to her continued, obstinate, and persistent promotion of pro-abortion public policy (laws, funding, etc.).
Progressive, modernist Catholics howled in displeasure that Holy Communion is not to be “weaponized” for political purposes.
Why all the fuss? Here is an attempt to help my fellow pro-life brothers and sisters in Christ understand what has happened and why I say this may be bigger than Dobbs.
Not political; pastoral
The Bible tells us that the only real "weaponizing” of the Eucharist is continuing to let someone "eat and drink condemnation upon themselves" (1 Cor 11:27-29).
Cordileone’s interdict is not a political move. It is a pastoral, spiritual move.
The public scandal that has persisted for decades with pro-abortion Catholic politicians is diabolical in nature. President Joe Biden, Pelosi, and others lead many to think that advocating for the killing of innocent life is acceptable.
It is not.
It is the antithesis of what Catholics stand for as we endeavor to reconcile souls to God.
Archbishop Cordileone has pleaded privately with Pelosi for years and his efforts to persuade her have been unsuccessful.
Thus, after a private heads-up to Pelosi in April 2022 that he would go public with his denial of Holy Communion if she persisted in her manifest error, he did just that.
As Pelosi’s spiritual father Cordileone had no alternative but to act in this most charitable manner for the benefit of her eternal soul.
“If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?” (Matt. 18:12)
For Catholics, the life of the soul is essential. If one is “dead in sin” all prudent efforts must be made to reclaim that soul for Christ.
We are observing the archbishop enter the next stage of his spiritual “search and rescue” operation on behalf of Pelosi.
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Cordileone has created a moment of clarity for both bishops and laity from which to view the gravity of the situation for Pelosi’s soul. Faithful Catholics want nothing less than for Pelosi to abandon her abortion advocacy, and to have her soul one day be in a state of grace.
Faithful Catholics and other Christians of goodwill have asked for decades why Catholic bishops won’t truly lead on the abortion issue.
Given the numerous rogue Catholic pro-abortion politicians out there, we ask why our bishops have not invoked Canon 915 en masse. The Canon states, “Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
As Pelosi has openly advocated for abortion, at some of the highest levels of leadership in this country for decades, she clearly has “obstinately persisted in manifest grave sin,” and the case is clear that she should have been denied Communion long ago, right? Yes.
What we have here is a case of better late than never.
A bishop doing his job is big news
Throughout history, many Catholic bishops have been shrinking violets when faced with political leadership who have advocated for anti-Catholic policies.
Examples of those who did voice their opposition to secular leadership as a matter of conscience and upholding the faith, names like Archbishop of Canterbury St. Thomas Becket, and Bishop of Rochester St. John Fisher, echo throughout history and are far too few.
Thus, today when a Catholic bishop stands up publicly to rescue a lost sheep from his flock, it is big news.
Another momentous example is that of the Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, who excommunicated Emperor Theodosius in 390 A.D.
Upon learning of the Massacre of Thessalonica where an estimated 7,000 men, women and children were killed in retribution for the murder of a garrison commander and a few other officials, St. Ambrose refused the emperor access to worship (including the reception of Holy Communion) until he performed public acts of repentance.
The saintly bishop’s bold, courageous, and heroic pastoral intervention had its intended effect. The emperor repented and made his soul right with God.
Seven-thousand innocent lives lost and the corresponding spiritual correction from the Catholic bishop was excommunication. Fitting.
Where are the St. Thomas Becket’s, St. John Fishers, and St. Ambrose’s of today?
The closest excommunication example in modern times of a U.S. bishop acting for the betterment of souls was on April 16, 1962, when New Orleans Archbishop Joseph Rummel excommunicated three Catholic leaders for their opposition to desegregating the Catholic schools in the archdiocese and the “unacceptability of racial discrimination.”
Exploiting the Catholic vote
Given the decline of the Church in America, and of our nation’s culture, how can it be that 60 years has passed between Rummel’s excommunication and Cordileone’s Holy Communion interdict?
Haven’t there been other moments since the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling when the U.S. bishops’ voices could have made a major positive difference in the arc of abortion in America?
Yes!
But abortion has now metastasized to the point where current Catholic politicians like Biden and Pelosi, along with many others in the Senate, House, and governor’s mansions, roll out their Catholic bona fides without remorse to garner votes while flouting their anti-Catholic position on life, finding it acceptable for a woman to terminate the life of her unborn child up until the moment of birth.
After decades, a bold, courageous, and heroic U.S. bishop decided enough was enough. An all but lone voice in the wilderness stood up and said, “No more. Not on my watch.”
The fact that one bishop did the right thing has substantial implications for the universal Church.
Time will tell if Archbishop Cordileone has created what Church historians will one day refer to as a “Catholic moment” that will reverberate into future years, and possibly generations.
The Cordileone interdict, no doubt, has seismic implications for saving souls.
For this reason, as a Catholic, this action of one heroic Bishop is perhaps bigger for me, and I suspect it is also for many other Catholics, than the anticipated favorable Dobbs decision.
Why?
It gives us a sliver of hope that more bishops in America will step up on the abortion issue to defend life, the teachings of the Church, and save untold numbers of Catholic politicians’ souls, and the souls of others, who are in grave peril of eternal damnation for their support of abortion.
The goal: eternal life with God
Catholics pray that no souls are lost. For Catholics, this life is but a mere moment in preparation for that next life – the eternal life.
What are the short and long-term ramifications of denying Pelosi communion?
While it has been the prudent next step, what if Pelosi does not use this time to repent and reconcile her soul to God? Would the next step be her de jure excommunication? Indeed, she has separated herself from the Church and placed her eternal salvation in grave danger by her obstinate, persistent promotion of abortion.
Please join me in praying and fasting for the conversion of heart, mind, and soul of Speaker Pelosi to one day soon live as a good and faithful servant of God the Father and Holy Mother Church and that she will defend all life from conception until natural death.
Please also join me in praying and fasting for Archbishop Cordileone to be strong, courageous, and heroic in resisting the expected pressure from the modernists in the Church to walk back the Pelosi interdiction.
As significant as it is that Pelosi, the second most powerful Catholic in public life in America, has been publicly called out, in the end it remains to be seen whether Archbishop Cordileone’s action on behalf of Pelosi and the faithful is bigger than the predicted Dobbs decision.
Imagine, however, if, in the Diocese of Wilmington (Delaware), the home of the nation’s second Catholic President Joe Biden, Bishop William Koenig were inspired by Cordileone’s courageous pastoral act to have a conversation with the president about his views on abortion – up to and including, if need be, the public denial of Holy Communion for the president until he sees the error of his ways.
What a teachable moment that would be for all. And, in its potential saving of souls for all eternity, it might have even bigger implications than the saving of human lives that will, thankfully, take place as a result of the expected Dobbs decision.
Editor's note: Doug Grane serves on the board for Heartbeat International, which manages Pregnancy Help News. Grane is also the Executive Producer of Mass of the Ages- Episode II: A Perfect Storm and author of Against the Grain: Heroic Catholics Through the Centuries.
