Pelosi Defies Ban

LifeNews reports that rabidly pro-abort Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was seen at Holy Trinity in Georgetown, Washington D.C. and received Holy Communion.

I would expect nothing less from Pelosi, especially given she probably feels completely vindicated having met with Pope Francis in October last year. If she understood the seriousness of her spiritual position she would not be so vehemently supporting abortion. But she is, and this necessitates further action from those seeking to save her. This motivation was clearly articulated by Archbishop Cordileone:

"After numerous attempts to speak with Speaker Pelosi to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, an the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

A memorandum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion", signed by its Prefect Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and published in July 2004, declared that, if a Catholic politician's formal cooperation in "the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia" becomes manifest by "consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws", the politician's pastor is obliged to instruct the politician about the Church's teaching and inform him that he should not present himself for Holy Communion as long as the objective situation of sin (regardless of whether subjective guilt exists or is absent) persists, warning him that, if he does present himself in those circumstances, he will be refused. As in the case of Catholics who divorce and remarry, if these precautionary measures fail to obtain the desired effect or are impossible, "and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, 'the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it'".

Obviously, in attending Mass in D.C., Pelosi avoids the problem of priests of San Francisco disobeying their bishop, but what does it say that the priests at Holy Trinity are prepared to openly contradict the San Franciscan prelate?

1. I don't blame Pelosi - she clearly doesn't understand or believe the teaching.

2. I do blame the Holy Trinity priests who are, by this action, saying either:

a). Church teaching is in error

or

b). The Blessed Sacrament is not the body, blood, soul & divinity of Our Lord & Saviour, Jesus Christ, but just a symbol.

Question: How does this further unity in the Church? Given ++Cordileone, an Archbishop with the proper juridical jurisdiction in this matter has ruled as he has, what right has a priest of the Catholic Church to contradict that ruling, especially given this whole matter is in the public domain?

This, it seems to me, constitutes nothing less than an attack on the very foundations of the faith and is a very serious matter, therefore.

The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." CCC1324, LG11. Indeed, Lumen Gentium 11 teaches:

"in Holy Communion by the Body of Christ, they then manifest in a concrete way that unity of the people of God which is suitably signified and wondrously brought about by this most august sacrament."

Even if you disagree with Archbishop Cordileone, how does unilateral disobedience further the cause of unity in the Church? How does it add to the cohesive whole of objective Catholic truth? How does it evangelise and teach others about Catholics? In short, how does it make any sense at all?