Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone The Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, released on May 1, 2021 a pastoral letter in which he insisted that any Catholic cooperating with the evil of abortion should refrain from receiving the Eucharist.
“It is fundamentally a question of integrity: to receive the Blessed Sacrament in the Catholic liturgy is to espouse publicly the Faith and moral teachings of the Catholic Church, and to desire to live accordingly,” wrote Archbishop Cordileone. “… [T]here is a great difference between struggling to live according to the teachings of the Church and rejecting those teachings.”
The letter, issued on the feast of St Joseph the Worker and at the beginning of the month honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary, comes on the heels of growing media coverage regarding whether President Biden should be admitted to Holy Communion within the Catholic Church.
Contained within his letter was a section specifically for Catholic public officials who advocate for abortion. “You are in a position to do something concrete and decisive to stop the killing,” he said.
“Please stop the killing. And please stop pretending that advocating for or practicing a grave moral evil – one that snuffs out an innocent human life, one that denies a fundamental human right – is somehow compatible with the Catholic Faith.”