Pelosi’s Archbishop Fires Back After She Accuses Pro-Life Supporters of ‘Selling Democracy Down the River’

Catholic Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone publicly corrected Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over her comments that pro-life supporters who voted for former President Donald Trump caused her “great grief as a Catholic” because they were “willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”

Archbishop Cordileone is the Catholic Archbishop of the Diocese of San Francisco, California, where Speaker Pelosi resides.

The Daily Citizen covered Speaker Pelosi’s original remarks which were made on former First Lady Hillary Clinton’s podcast called “You and Me Both.”

Archbishop Cordileone’s statement is worth quoting at length here:

“Nancy Pelosi does not speak for the Catholic Church. She speaks as a high-level important government leader, and as a private citizen. And on the question of the equal dignity of human life in the womb, she also speaks in direct contradiction to a fundamental human right that Catholic teaching has consistently championed for 2,000 years.

“Christians have always understood that the commandment, ‘Thou shall not kill,’ applies to all life, including life in the womb. Around the end of the first century the Letter of Barnabas states: “You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born’ (#19). One thousand, eight hundred and sixty-five years later, the Second Vatican Council affirmed: ‘Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes’ (Gaudium et spes, n. 51)…

“Speaker Pelosi has chosen this week to impugn the motives of millions of Catholics and others for choosing to make voting on the issue of abortion their priority and accuses them of ‘selling out democracy.’ This is not the language of unity and healing. She owes these voters an apology…

“No Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion. ‘Right to choose’ is a smokescreen for perpetuating an entire industry that profits from one of the most heinous evils imaginable. Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop.

“That is why, as Catholics, we will continue to speak out on behalf of those who have no voice to speak for themselves and reach out to, comfort and support those who are suffering the scars of the abortion experience. We will do so, until our land is finally rid of this despicable evil.”

Speaker Pelosi is a self-described Catholic, though she is a radical proponent of abortion.

Formal participation in an abortion incurs an automatic excommunication by the Catholic Church, which teaches that “direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states.

Though it’s unlikely that a politician who supports abortion fulfills this “formal participation” requirement, nonetheless, the Catholic Church urges lawmakers to enact laws to protect the unborn: “The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority… Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death.”

Pro-life supporters can be deeply grateful for Archbishop Cordileone’s public correction of Speaker Pelosi. Yet, it remains highly troubling that the two most high-profile Catholic politicians in the country, Speaker Pelosi and President Biden, are so drastically pro-abortion.

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Photo from Archdiocese of San Francisco