Archbishop criticises Nancy Pelosi for attack on pro-life voters

27th January 2021

The Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco has issued a strong statement in which he accused US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of impugning the motives of pro-life voters.

“On the question of the equal dignity of human life in the womb”, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement, she, “speaks in direct contradiction to a fundamental human right that Catholic teaching has consistently championed for 2,000 years.”

Pelosi had told Hillary Clinton in a podcast that Donald Trump became president because of opposition to what she called a “woman’s right to choose,” — something she said “gives me great grief as a Catholic.”
She added, “they were willing to sell the whole democracy down the river for that one issue.”
Pelosi is the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, and the Speaker of the House.
Archbishop Cordileone said Catholic teaching on abortion goes back millennia, and was reaffirmed more recently by the Second Vatican Council and by Pope Francis, while the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) made a prudential determination that, among political issues, it was a ‘preeminent priority.’

“This is not the language of unity and healing,” he said. “She owes these voters an apology.”

While Cordileone noted that there are many issues Catholic must weigh when casting their vote in November, he said that “no Catholic in good conscience can favor abortion.”

“‘Right to choose’ is a smokescreen for perpetuating an entire industry that profits from one of the most heinous evils imaginable,” he said. “Our land is soaked with the blood of the innocent, and it must stop.”