Pope Francis elevates bishop who supports Communion for pro-abortion parishioners

Among the 21 new cardinals announced Sunday by Pope Francis is San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy, who argued against refusing the Roman Catholic Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist — also known as “Holy Communion” — to parishioners who are actively pro-abortion, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Joe Biden.

As BizPac Review reported earlier this month, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone banned Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion for her “manifestly grave sin” of advocating for abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court opinion draft leak that suggests Roe v. Wade will soon be overturned.

“After numerous attempts to speak with Speaker Pelosi to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, an (sic) the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion,” Cordileone had posted to Twitter.

 

In naming McElroy as cardinal, Pope Francis shunned the higher-ranking Cordileone, Fox News reports.

While Cordileone has a long history of warning pro-abortion Catholic politicians against accepting the Eucharist, McElroy has taken the exact opposite stance, instead warning U.S. bishops against refusing Communion to abortion advocates.

In an article for America: The Jesuit Review last June, McElroy wrote, “The proposal to exclude pro-choice Catholic political leaders from the Eucharist is the wrong step. It will bring tremendously destructive consequences — not because of what it says about abortion, but because of what it says about the Eucharist.”

According to McElroy, “[t]he Eucharist is being weaponized and deployed as a tool in political warfare. This must not happen.”

Responding to Cordileone’s move to deny her Communion, Pelosi replied, “This decision taking us to privacy and precedent is very dangerous in the lives of so many American people and again not consistent with the Gospel of Matthew.”

As Fox News noted, Cordileone’s declaration was ignored, and Pelosi received Communion at Holy Trinity in Washington, D.C.

Online, Twitter users — many of them Catholic — point to the controversy as emblematic of the declining state of the Catholic Church under Pope Francis.

“The fact that McElroy is being made a cardinal but not Cordileone sums up the state of the Catholic Church today,” tweeted Father Dwight Longenecker.


Another user was not surprised in the least by McElroy’s elevation.

“Don’t pretend to be shocked that McElroy was named a Cardinal,” he wrote. “His values align very well with the German Bishops.”

And in a lengthy thread, Dr. Taylor Marshall, author of “Infiltration,” alleged that the aim of Pope Francis is to weaken America by any means necessary.

“Francis is liberal but more than anything he wants the global demotion of the Unites States,” Marshall tweeted. “He will support those American bishops who wish to demote the USA.”

“Anything that radicalized, divides and weakens the USA (BLM, [LGBTQ], gun control, higher taxes, sending billion dollar relief packages out of [the USA]) will be promoted by this franchise of Francis,” he continued. “The only loud voices against Francis are the Traditionalists. We are united by our liturgy and parishes. So he attacks and restricts Tradition as ‘rigid’ and backward.”

https://twitter.com/TaylorRMarshall/status/1531239555793358848?s=20&t=LzHMx6C0RuRfFNv0lZAfrQ


As part of his proposed solutions to the controversial Church policies, Marshall suggests expanding the values the traditional Church has long held.

“Create a counter culture,” he urged followers. “Invite newcomers. Help marriages and kids. Promote vocations. Find articulate leaders. Promote them. Create literature and art.”

“They have the money and politicians,” Marshall said. “But we have the Faith and the growth.”

Melissa Fine

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