The new Texas law essentially banning abortion has raised a cry among liberals, including some prominent liberal “Catholic” politicians. Among those politicians are Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden. And while the leadership of the Catholic Church has debated the issue of denying Communion to pro-abortion Catholics in political power, one bishop is taking a strong stand. That bishop is Archbishop Cordileone — and he is Nancy Pelosi’s bishop.
The Texas law — which went into effect on September 1 — bans all abortions past approximately six weeks (when a baby’s heartbeat can first be detected). Since many women are unaware that they are pregnant at six weeks, the law essentially bans abortion in the Lone Star State. Unlike other “fetal heartbeat laws,” which the courts have struck down, this law does not provide criminal penalties. Instead, it allows any private citizen to sue someone providing abortions or anyone assisting someone in getting an abortion. It tackles the real incentive of abortionists — money. The law removes that incentive by placing a financial burden on those who perform, assist, or pay for abortions. That burden is a minimum of $10,000 per instance, per person.
Last week, the Supreme Court denied an attempt to block the law as it works through the courts. The fate of the law could well be the fate of America. If it is successful, it could be the end of Roe v. Wade. Six other states — Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Dakota — have considered copying the law.
As a result of the court refusing to quash the law, Biden has said he will bring the full weight of the federal government to bear on Texas. Pelosi has decried the Texas ban as an assault on the liberty of women, calling it a “cowardly, dark-of-night decision to uphold a flagrantly unconstitutional assault on women’s rights and health” and promising to pass legislation “codifying Roe v. Wade” in federal law.
As Democrats, that is to be expected and is well within the boundaries of their partisan “loyalties.” But, as Catholics — and the mainstream media are quick to remind us that both Biden and Pelosi are “devout” Catholics — their advocacy of the barbaric practice of murdering babies in utero is outside the boundaries for practicing Catholics. And Pelosi’s bishop not only knows that but has now publicly said so. Furthermore, Archbishop Cordileone is floating the idea of ex-communication of pro-abortion Catholics in positions of political power.
In an op-ed piece published in the Washington Post Sunday, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone stood up for Catholic moral teaching and against the prevailing political winds, writing that abortion is “the most pressing human rights challenge of our time” and that Catholic politicians who advocate — or legislate — in favor of it are not Catholics in good standing and should be denied Communion.
Archbishop Cordileone’s op-ed does not mention Biden, Pelosi, or any other politicians by name but makes it clear that “You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings.” Furthermore, the archbishop invokes a historical precedent for excommunicating Catholics who in their public lives cause a scandal that may lead others to sin.
That historical precedent is the action of another Catholic bishop who, in the 1960s, pushed back against the racism and segregation in his time and place by integrating Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Archbishop Cordileone wrote:
The example of New Orleans Archbishop Joseph Rummel, who courageously confronted the evils of racism, is one that I especially admire. Rummel did not “stay in his lane.” Unlike several other bishops throughout this country’s history, he did not prioritize keeping parishioners and the public happy above advancing racial justice. Instead, he began a long, patient campaign of moral suasion to change the opinions of pro-segregation White Catholics.
It may be difficult for many today — having lived in a world without segregation — to imagine a world where black Catholics were barred from white Catholic churches (violating the very meaning of the word “Catholic”), but in New Orleans (as in much of the south in those days, segregation was the way things were. But that was not good enough for Archbishop Rummel. He understood that human dignity knows no ethnicity and that “Catholic” means “Universal.” So, as Archbishop Cordileone wrote:
In 1948, he admitted two Black students to New Orleans’s Notre Dame Seminary. In 1951, he ordered the removal of “white” and “colored” signs from Catholic churches in the archdiocese. In a 1953 pastoral letter, he ordered an end to segregation throughout the archdiocese of New Orleans, telling White Catholics that, because their “Colored Catholic brethren share … the same spiritual life and destiny,” there could be “no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional and in parish meetings.”
In 1955, Rummel closed a church for refusing to accept a Black priest. In a 1956 pastoral letter, he declared: “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.” On March 27, 1962, Rummel formally announced the end of segregation in the New Orleans Catholic schools.
As might be expected, his changes were not embraced by the white Catholics who held the evil seed of racism in their hearts. Archbishop Cordileone explains what happened and how Archbishop Rummel dealt with it, writing:
Many White Catholics were furious at this disruption of the long-entrenched segregationist status quo. They staged protests and boycotts. Rummel patiently sent letters urging a conversion of heart, but he was also willing to threaten opponents of desegregation with excommunication.
On April 16, 1962, he followed through, excommunicating a former judge, a well-known writer and a segregationist community organizer. Two of the three later repented and died Catholics in good standing.
In Chapter 18 of St. Matthew’s gospel, our Lord laid out the logistics and purpose of excommunication. The purpose is that “thou shalt gain thy brother” — or the repentance and salvation of the sinner. Excommunication is not a political tool; It is a final plea for repentance. As Archbishop Cordileone points out, it was successful for two of the three initially recalcitrant racists.
Against that historical example, Archbishop Cordileone asks, “Was that wrong? Was that weaponizing the Eucharist?” And he answers his own question, writing, “No. Rummel recognized that prominent, high-profile public advocacy for racism was scandalous: It violated core Catholic teachings and basic principles of justice, and also led others to sin.”
That Biden, Pelosi, et al. are guilty of violating “core Catholic teachings and basic principles of justice” and are “[leading] others to sin” is beyond question. That they should at least be denied Communion is clear. If, after being denied Communion, they still “will not hear the church,” excommunication is an option.
That Archbishop Cordileone invoked that historical precedent should serve as a stern warning to the Bidens and Pelosis of public life. To paraphrase the archbishop, their “public advocacy for [abortion]” is “scandalous” and “[violates] core Catholic teachings and basic principles of justice, and also [leads] others to sin.”
They are not Catholics in good standing — no matter what the liberal mainstream media keep saying. And if excommunicated, they wouldn’t be Catholics at all. One is left to wonder if they would even notice the difference.
