Wilton Gregory, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, has openly broken with the Church by allowing pro-abortion House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Holy Communion. Church policy had been to adhere to rulings by home bishops. Since Pelosi is from San Francisco, she should be denied Communion because her archbishop deemed that the proper course of action given her views on the sin of abortion.

FNC: “The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., mistakenly emailed a reporter seeking comment on its position regarding the San Francisco archbishop’s decision to bar House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., from receiving Holy Communion due to her stance on abortion after Pelosi reportedly took Communion in D.C. on Sunday.

When The Washington Examiner reached out to the archdiocese for comment, the outlet received an email stating that media requests on the subject ‘will be ignored.’ ”

“Just sharing for you to know what comes in,” the email stated. “Email since Saturday, when I last checked the comms inbox has just been a couple of random people wanting to tell the Cardinal to bring down the hammer on Pelosi. Aside from Jack Jenkins at RNS, this is the only new media inquiry. It will be ignored, too.”

When the email kerfuffle went public an archdiocese spox commented. “I apologize for the mistaken email,” the spokesperson replied. “We have not been responding to inquiries on this topic because Cardinal [Wilton] Gregory’s position has not changed from what he has said in the past.”

“Cardinal Gregory has no new comment about the issue of Catholic politicians receiving Communion,” the follow-up email to the Examiner stated. “The actions of Archbishop Cordileone are his decision to make in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Cardinal Gregory has not instructed the priests of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to refuse Communion to anyone.”

Archbishop Gregory said in regards to the question, bishops are “not there as police, we’re there as pastors, and as pastors, we certainly have to teach the faith of the Church, we have to be true to the Church’s heritage of faith, but we also have to bring people along with us. It is not simply a matter of pointing out their errors.” Complete hogwash. Gregory is a political archbishop in a political town. That is the only reason Pelosi gets Communion.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone had previously said that Pelosi’s “advocacy for codifying the Roe decision into federal law—it’s becoming more and more extreme and more and more aggressive.”

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Cordileone commented on the views of former Pope Benedict, “He gave us advice on how to approach this, specifically with politicians, Catholic politicians, and specifically on the two issues of abortion and euthanasia,” Cordileone said. “He said we need to meet, to dialogue, to try to move them down the path of conversion. And if after several attempts it comes to the point where it’s clear [that] this is not going to happen, then the bishop or the pastor, says, is to declare that the person is not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

Cordileone added, “If she’s not to be admitted to Holy Communion, our priests and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, all those who are Communion ministers need to know that.”

The Church is clear on the matter. “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense,” the catechism states. “The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”