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Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.Drew Angerer / Getty Images

(LifeSiteNews) —  The editorial board of the San Francisco Examiner reacted to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s recent instruction barring Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the pro-abortion Speaker of the House, from Holy Communion by calling on Pope Francis to remove the prelate from office.

“In light of Cordileone’s resurgent efforts to create discord, we repeat the call for Pope Francis to remove him and replace him with a leader who can unify rather than divide,” the unnamed members of the editorial board wrote.

Archbishop Cordileone made his notification to Pelosi public on Friday after multiple private attempts over several years to convince the Catholic laywoman to repent from her support for the decriminalized killing of preborn girls and boys in the womb.

The Catholic Church has always taught that a Catholic who has committed a mortal sin but has not yet been absolved from this sin in the Sacrament of Confession is not to present herself or himself for Holy Communion.

In the archbishop’s notification to Pelosi, he wrote, “[Y]ou are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance.”

Cordileone also wrote that Pelosi had the option to voluntarily refrain from referring to herself as Catholic and receiving Holy Communion, but since she would not do even this, he had “no choice” but take this action in obedience to Canon 915 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law, which states, “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

The anonymous Examiner editorial board writer(s) referred to an ambiguous statement by Pope Francis last June as a supposed justification for their position. At that time, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was preparing to debate whether pro-abortion politicians, such as Joe Biden, should be denied Holy Communion.

In a Sunday homily on June 6, the pope said, “The Eucharist is not the reward of saints, but the Bread of sinners.”

As reported by David McLoone at the time, “LifeSiteNews is unaware of the origin of the title ‘bread of sinners’ to describe the Blessed Sacrament, as the title seems to have no basis in the Church’s bimillennial tradition.”

Interpreting this confusing phrase as a binding dogma in the Church, the Examiner charged Cordileone as being “in open defiance of Pope Francis.” They also appealed to the pope “to send a clear message that he, not Cordileone, is the leader of the faith … by relieving this insubordinate saboteur of his duties in San Francisco and putting an end to his political schemes.”

Confusion from this papal statement is also having a ripple effect across secular media. In a Monday monologue on “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg cited this statement from the pope in an excoriation of the archbishop stating that his pastoral action, in service primarily to the salvation of Pelosi’s soul, “is not your job, dude. That is not up to you to make that decision.”

In the meantime, at least 14 Catholic bishops in the United States have voiced support for Cordileone’s pastoral action.

Bishop Michael Barber of the Diocese of Oakland called it a “heroic and compassionate stance” in “the defense of human life.” He also quoted Pope Francis, who once said, “Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ.”

Bishop Donald Hying of the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin released <a statement through the diocesan newspaper, the Catholic Herald, calling it a “prudent decision” to deny Pelosi Holy Communion and urged prayers for her conversion.

“This is not a decision that was made rashly, but rather one made after almost 10 years of patient dialogue and repeated attempts at reconciliation with the congresswoman and the consistently held teachings of the Catholic Church,” Bishop Hying stated. “Please join me in prayer for Speaker Pelosi, that she may embrace the sacred truth and dignity of the human person, formed in the womb, in the image of God.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas tweeted, “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Archbishop Cordileone for loving Nancy Pelosi in the Truth of Jesus Christ!”

Bishop Thomas Paprocki in the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois affirmed, “I fully support and earnestly commend Archbishop Cordileone’s action in regard to Speaker Pelosi. All politicians who promote abortion should not receive holy Communion until they have repented, repaired scandal, and been reconciled to Christ and the Church.”

On May 2, a draft decision from the Supreme Court was leaked indicating the possible and eminent overturning of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that has, since that time, allowed the unrestricted slaughter of over 63 million preborn children across the United States.

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There’s a long list of pro-abortion ‘Catholics’ who should be banned from Holy Communion like Pelosi

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