The May 20 letter of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone instructing his priests not to give communion to pro-abortion Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was reported worldwide. The archbishop gave a detailed explanation for his actions, invoking Canon 915. As of this writing, at least 14 U.S. bishops have voiced their support for Cordileone.
Throughout his episcopate Cordileone has reached out to Speaker Pelosi. But Cordileone is not the first archbishop of San Francisco, nor is he the highest-ranking Catholic prelate, to have attempted to convert Pelosi.
As far back as 2008, San Francisco’s then-archbishop, George Niederauer, invited Pelosi to meet with him to discuss abortion. The invitation followed Pelosi’s widely publicized misstatements on Catholic doctrine during a Meet the Press interview.
On September 5, 2008, the Catholic News Agency reported: “The archbishop of San Francisco George Niederauer has issued a response to remarks made by U.S. House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi regarding her recent comments on abortion and Catholic teaching. Commenting that her rejection of the immorality of abortion has produced ‘widespread consternation,’ the archbishop said it is his duty to consider whether Rep. Pelosi should receive Holy Communion. He then invited the Democratic leader to converse with him about Catholic faith and morals.
“I regret the necessity of addressing these issues in so public a forum,” he continued, “but the widespread consternation among Catholics made it unavoidable. Speaker Pelosi has often said how highly she values her Catholic faith, and how much it is a source of joy for her. Accordingly, as her pastor, I am writing to invite her into a conversation with me about these matters.”
On February 8, 2009, the two met. On February 19, Real Catholic TV reported “A spokesman for Nancy Pelosi has told Real Catholic TV and Our Sunday Visitor that San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer met with the House Speaker on February 8 to discuss her position on abortion. Commenting on the meeting, spokesman Brendan Daly said, ‘She is not changing her position on abortion.’”
Niederauer passed away in 2017.
Archbishop Niederauer was not the only one attempting to convert Pelosi. On February 18, 2009, ten days after her meeting with Niederauer, Pelosi attended a general audience with then-Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. The Vatican released this terse statement:
“Following the General Audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage.
“His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.”
– California Catholic exclusive by Gibbons Cooney
Never give up! Ms. Pelosi may yet change her evil ways of promoting abortion and other sins, repent and return to the Sacraments. Think of Saul/St. Paul, former abortionist Bernard Nathanson, and so many others. Pray for her. I won’t hold my breath, but I do believe that God can do miracles, if her heart is open.
Well put.
Yes, we should never give up. But the Church has a responsibility to uphold Christ’s teachings, and administer good discipline. Discipline and guidance are an important part of God’s Love. The bishops and all clergy of the Vatican II era, should stop their nonsense, and do their jobs correctly. They are not faithful to Our Lord, have sinned by refusing to obey Him in their work for Him, by refusing to discipline His “sheep”– and are in need of His discipline, themselves. Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Gavin Newsom, and many others, should all have long ago been excommunicated, after being given warnings to repent. And prayers for the conversion of “bad Catholics” should go right along with the excommunications. Many “bad Catholic” clerics also should be warned, and then face excommunication– Fr. James Martin, S.J., the “bad Catholic” German bishops, Cdl. Jean-Claude Hollerich, S J., etc. etc.
Deacon Anderson: Senator Susan Collins, (R – Maine) is a Catholic who has spoken out in favor of abortion. And yet she has not been rebuked by the Bishop of the diocese in which she resides nor by her fellow conservative republicans. There seems to be a different standard for republicans. Also, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that capital punishment is a sin. And yet lots of Catholic politicians, mostly republicans, who support the death penalty are not instructed by their respective Bishops to not receive Holy Communion. Again, a double standard.
William Robert, There’s not a double-standard. Pro-abortion Catholic Democrats Joe Biden, Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman Ruben Gallego, our governor Gavin Newsom as well as many others have not been, to use your word, “rebuked” by their bishops. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski should be added to the list. The issue is the promotion of the mass killing of children, not whether one is a Democrat, Republican, independent or anything else. More than can be addressed here, but the Church, and I, oppose capital punishment. Yet, abortion is the pre-eminent issue. An innocent baby who is executed in the womb is not subject to capital punishment. Without the right to life, all other rights are meaningless. There is also the issue of magnitude. (Since 1976, when capital punishment again became legal, 1491 persons have been executed. That’s 1491 too many. Yet, millions of preborn babies have been intentionally killed since 1973, the year Roe v. Wade was imposed on our nation. Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion chain, gives an example from a recent year: “Approximately 862,320 abortions were performed in 2017.”) Let’s work to protect all life, from conception until natural death. And, neither Speaker Pelosi, President Biden or others in their party are working to end the death penalty. They give it “lip service” when campaigning, but as the “pro-choice” Washington Post noted, “no legislation to eliminate the death penalty has been submitted, and we have heard little from the White House.” The Democrats control both houses of Congress and the presidency, what are they waiting for?
Dear William Robert, The Holy Spirit who leads and guides His Spousal Church has never Taught in Sacred Scripture or any of His Teachings in any Catechism that a death penalty for wickedness of sin/s is a sin – just the opposite actually and morally impossible because then the Lord could not kill anyone for sin – or command it, as like in His Old Covenant – because it would be a sin of injustice and God cannot sin, not by injustice or deceit, or in any way – would we make the Beloved into a monstrous sinner??? Start with Him in Genesis and then ‘hold fast to His Teachings, either by written word or word of mouth’, not ‘those that would tickle ears’ and ‘change with strange teachings His Truth with is the same yesterday, today and forever’….Blessed Easter-Ascension-Pentecost
padregf: pick up a current copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Section 2267 notes that the death penalty is “inadmissible” because it is an attack on the dignity of a human person.
The Death Penalty is not intrinsically evil. Abortion is.
Then she’s going to hell. Hope Satan makes it hot for her and assigns legions of demons to jab her with pitchforks. It would be a nice touch if Satan also arranged for video monitors to play all the moments when the Church’s shepherds attempted in all charity to correct her, yet she resisted. Play those for her for eternity in hell. She had plenty of opportunities, but she refused.
We send ourselves to the state of Hell, by our total rejection of God, and rejection of Christ’s teachings. Nancy, if unrepentant to life’s end– will no doubt fall shamefully on her face, before the tremendous Divine Power, Glory, Love, and Goodness of God, and the shame of her unrepentant sins will violently burn her, in the presence of all the poor, innocent souls of billions of aborted babies. The filthy souls of those diabolic people who sought sexual sins, murdering “unwanted” beautiful, innocent children, sent to them by God, will burn in violent agony and shame, before God, Christ, the Blessed Mother, and all the holy Angels and Saints. Let’s pray that Nancy and many others, will end up in Purgatory, at least, not Hell.
Well, my comment of May 25, at 3:40pm, is really conjecture. Who knows what will happen, and what God has in mind? But we all need plenty of respect for God, and to avoid sin at all costs, and follow Christ, with all our hearts.
Rather self-righteous and vainglorious to make a condemning statement, but does not the Bible state that “Judgment is Mine”, sayeth the Lord? Be careful, else your efforts to condemn others, to even declare how you wish hell to be, will be turned on you when it’s your turn to face God for your own sins.
Be careful how you view facts and truths regarding sinful behavior! For example– when is Patriarch Kirill going to honestly speak up for Christ, and publicly condemn Vladimir Putin and Russia’s evil invasion of Ukraine? Adults in positions of religious and secular authority, as well as parents, teachers, law enforcement, etc., must honestly speak up, condemn, stop, and punish sinful and dangerous behavior– parents, clergy, teachers, law enforcement, etc. That is their duty to God and to society. Today’s society is dishonest, too permissive, and very dangerous people, with terrible sins, are in abundance. Children are not safe. We have too many mass killings, even at schools! Evils must be ended, and criminals must be stopped and punished.
One of the most horrific crimes, is the murder of unborn children! And those in political power who support, legislate, and enable the horrific crime of the murder of unborn children, need to be stopped– and punished.
Go read some Dante, would you? He described hell vividly and described tortures that fit people’s sins. Was Dante wrong to write The Divine Comedy?
1Cor 6:2….” Do you not know the saints will judge the world?”
Dremel quotes the only line in scripture the leftist commit to memory, because they think it gives them cover to do whatever the hell they want. Guess I will judge and condemn those who have ushered in the slaughter of the unborn.
Pelosi’s gods are secular. One of her gods (or goddesses) is Eleanor Roosevelt who was just a flawed human. We all have to watch out about idolizing people and not copy or justify their sins but only admire their virtues. Many of the early feminists realized that feminism could go too far and destroy families. Many were against abortion, others were not, just power hungry.
I hate it when someone tells a child, “You can be anything you want to be.” That is excessive. It is nonsense. What if what they want to be is harmful to themselves or others?
Correction to fifth line. “I hate it when someone tells children………”
I have pick up some very bad habits myself from all this gender fluid nonsense such as my verbs not being compatible with my nouns.
So can we just ignore her now? She’s not going to change her mind. On to other things.
It seems that the late Archbishop Niederauer was the first to confront the irreconcilability of Pelosi’s publicly stated abortion views with binding Catholic doctrine. Anyone who knew him (and I did) is certain that he did so with the sole aim of convincing her that her views were at war with her faith—using only the calm, persuasive reasoning of his formidable intellect and his undisguisable kindness and courtliness. George Niederauer was the most honest pastor Pelosi could have hoped for. Still, she apparently gave him the back of her hand. As she has now publicly done to his successor, Archbishop Cordileone.
I guess you can try to teach an uber-rich, under-educated San Francisco pol—but you can’t teach her much.
enjoy your ice cream, nancy
Two thoughts come to mind: 1) Pelosi did not “promote” abortion, which sounds like every good female should go get pregnant and then have one, On the contrary, she speaks of reproductive rights, and yes, that includes thus far the right to decide before week 24 if a pregnancy should be terminated. As I’ve stated many times, prior to 24 weeks a fetus is not viable, in that it will not survive beyond the womb…. Be careful what you wish for – you never know when your own family will be affected.
Your statement flies in the face of modern science.
Viability outside the womb of the unborn human being has nothing to do with the morality/immorality of abortion. Viability is just a subjective construct to try to argue in favor of something that cannot be rationally argued for. Once conception occurs, a unique human being begins its development–development that takes place both in and outside the womb (post-birth). As it is, your figure of 24 weeks isn’t even valid. Babies born earlier than 24 weeks have now survived thanks to improving medical capabilities. Procured abortion is always wrong. Always.
No. All life is sacred. It does not belong to us– it belongs to Almighty God. Only God can make a life, and only God can take a life. We must not “play God” with a human life, for any reason, at any stage of life! God has a unique, Divine Plan to fulfill, for each life that He makes. We must always respect that. No mother has the authority to “play God” with a child’s life– and harm, abuse, or murder that child. If she cannot properly love and care for the child entrusted on earth to her, by Alnighty God– then she must responsibly place the child for adoption. All life is sacred, from the moment of conception until natural death.
The issue here is not only about politicians stance on abortion, but the lack of moral backbone of our bishops and priest addressing these issues from the pulpit. How many times have we seen the American bishops give grants to abortion groups. The average sermon is addressed to the modern contemporary Catholic who knows very little about their faith due to the lack of parental foundation of their faith. Most do not even see confessions as needed, and many liberal teachers in our seminarys foster this.
Dear William Robert, The Holy Spirit who leads and guides His Spousal Church has never Taught in Sacred Scripture or any of His Teachings in any Catechism that a death penalty for wickedness of sin/s is a sin – just the opposite actually and morally impossible because then the Lord could not kill anyone for sin – or command it, as like in His Old Covenant – because it would be a sin of injustice and God cannot sin, not by injustice or deceit, or in any way – would we make the Beloved into a monstrous sinner??? Start with Him in Genesis and then ‘hold fast to His Teachings, either by written word or word of mouth’, not ‘those that would tickle ears’ and ‘change with strange teachings His Truth with is the same yesterday, today and forever’….Blessed Easter-Ascension-Pentecost
oops….this:
then ‘hold fast to His, God’s Holy Spirit, Teachings’, Titus 1:9′ John 14:26; 16:13; 17:17-19
‘either by written word or word of mouth’, 2 Thess 2:15
‘those that would tickle ears’, 2 Timothy 4:3
‘change with strange teachings His Truth with is the same yesterday, today and forever’, Hebrews 13:8-9
‘the one who commits treacherous murder, their life shall be taken’, Geneis 9:6
Genesis 9:6 is not a sin or evil by the Beloved, nor His Commanding it. Now whether it is requisite presently, is another question, but the Beloved has Divinely Revealed, it is not intrinsically evil, forbidden, a sin. If God has so loved us, we, brethren must so love each other’, for ‘so He has commanded us’.
Pro- life workers work hard standing outside abortion centers hoping to have the slightest chance to share a word with a mother, maybe just a pamphlet , to help her choose to continue motherhood to the birth moment. Lives are saved. The speaker through her national platform and media access can foment a decisional fog for a very many people as she teaches her version of life science and the Church’s teachings. Cardinal Cordileone is being more than pastoral here. He is rescuing the unborn with a worldwide audience, a necessary counterbalance to the Speaker’s worldwide audience . This is material cooperation in abortion
It is not only the roman church. Abortion has been listed as wrong even as early as the Didache
These comments are why I stay away from Calvinist Catholics. There is no doubt in my mind about heretical catholics who are against Mercy. Whether it is the called St Pius Society, Traditionalists, Bishop Lefebvre. Regrettably Benedict lifted excommunication on the four fake bishops of Lefebvre.
We still deal with schismatic bishops who attack Francis and are willfully disobedient.
These Bishops set themselves up as antipopes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Lefebvre
OH look a non-judgemental coward,who can’t even call out those who have written into law the slaughter of the unborn.
Wrong Mario they never claimed to be popes…