(LifeSiteNews) – San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has yet again called out President Joe Biden over his pro-abortion stance, scorching the self-professed Catholic politician for changing his beliefs about the unborn “in accordance with the platform of the Democratic Party.”
Speaking on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast” on Tuesday, Cordileone said America’s second Catholic president has parted ways with both the teaching of the Church and of sound science by rejecting the humanity of a person from the moment of his conception.
Although previously in his career Biden had upheld the humanity of the unborn, “clearly on this issue he keeps changing [his stance] in accordance with the platform of the Democratic Party,” Cordileone charged.
“It’s not a matter of religious belief when life begins, it’s a matter of science … science tells us life begins at conception,” Cordileone said. “The church affirms that, so he is explicitly dissenting not only from Church teaching, but from sound science,” the bishop added, suggesting that Biden “seems to be more guided by the Democratic Party than his Catholic faith.”
Cordileone made the comments ahead of the Fall Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore next week, during which the bishops are expected to draft a teaching document on the worthy reception of Holy Communion.
The bishops debated whether to draft a document “On the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church” earlier in the year, sparking division among the conference, especially regarding any official reprimand of Catholic politicians who publicly support and facilitate abortion.
Although there was some dissent, the motion to draft a formal statement on the Eucharist comfortably passed on June 18, with 168–55 votes in favor. Cordileone strongly supported the decision at the time, saying, “If we fail now and do not act courageously in presenting Church teaching … how can we expect to be taken seriously when speaking on any other topic?”
A statement within the document on “Eucharistic coherence” is expected to deal specifically with the matter of the reception of Holy Communion for those whose words or actions gravely contravene Catholic teaching, in accordance with can. 915 of the Code of Canon Law, which states that people “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”
Although Cordileone affirmed that any document barring pro-abortion politicians from receiving the Eucharist would not name any specific person, he stressed that it was Biden’s election to the presidency that “spurred” the debate, a discussion which he said had been “long overdue.”
“Now, with a Catholic president who is so aggressive for abortion, it makes [a resolution] very urgent,” Cordileone said. “I think that gave some stimulus to us doing something that was already overdue.”
Cordileone has previously been outspoken against the open pro-abortion stance of Catholic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who belongs to his archdiocese. Pelosi and the House of Representatives voted in September to pass legislation that would enshrine abortion on demand in federal law.
Last month, after describing the law as “child sacrifice,” the archbishop announced a campaign of “prayer and fasting” for a “conversion of heart” for the notorious pro-abortion Catholic. “Commit to praying one rosary a week and fasting on Fridays for her conversion of heart,” he encouraged.
Since launching the campaign, the San Francisco archbishop said he has “heard nothing from her office,” although he hopes “to have another conversation with her in the near future.”
Cordileone took the opportunity to again encourage Catholics to pray and fast for both Pelosi and Biden during Tuesday’s podcast, following the Pope’s instructions for bishops to be “pastors, not politicians.”
“I don’t know what could be more pastoral than prayer and fasting … How can you argue with that?” he said.
Cordileone noted the grave consequences of America’s abortion industry, telling Purvis that that “since Roe [v. Wade], more than 60 million babies have been murdered in their mothers’ wombs.”
“It’s a bloodbath,” the prelate lamented.
Cordileone drew attention to the “emotional scars and psychological scars” that mothers who have procured abortions will suffer, noting that among abortion advocates, “very often they are not allowed to even talk about it.”
“They’re feeling this hole, this anguish inside, and they’re not allowed to let it out,” he continued, highlighting that pro-life Catholics are often the ones “helping them to heal” instead of encouraging people to “bury” their guilt, which would “just eat away at them all the more.”
“Who offers them opportunities to give birth? There are many choices. Yes, abortion is only one choice. It’s the one wrong choice,” the prelate stated. “These abortion clinics, they give [mothers] only one choice. And one choice is no choice. You have to have at least two options to have a choice.”
“Our pro-life crisis pregnancy clinics that are run by people of faith, they’re the ones who are pro-choice because they’re giving [mothers] every choice, except one,” stated the archbishop.
On Biden’s remarks that the Pope had said he is “a good Catholic” and should “keep receiving Communion” during his October 29 visit to Rome, Cordileone commented that since “the Vatican has neither affirmed nor denied that,” it is difficult to know whether the claim is true.
“I tend to believe that the pope didn’t say that, or at least [not] exactly that,” the archbishop said, adding that “people tend to hear what they want to hear. The pope may have said something that President Biden heard to mean that.”