In a letter to Pelosi released Friday afternoon, the archbishop wrote that he had informed the California Democrat that “should you not publicly repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”

“As you have not publicly repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come,” he continued. “Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be ‘concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 383, §1), by means of this communication I am hereby notifying you that you 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.”

CNN has reached out to Pelosi’s office for comment.

Last year, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly to approve a document that fell far short of refusing Holy Communion to President Joe Biden or others who support abortion rights, something conservatives in the Church have pushed for in spite of guidance from Pope Francis. Biden, while visiting Italy last year, said Pope Francis told him he was happy he was a “good Catholic” and said he should continue receiving Communion.

Biden, who is a lifelong devout Catholic, was denied Communion in 2019 at a Catholic church in South Carolina over his support for abortion rights.

Pope Francis has spoken out against the moves by some American bishops to permit individual bishops to deny communion to politicians who support abortion rights. The Communion refusal movement is driven by a more conservative wing of the Catholic Church.

CNN’s Tom Foreman contributed to this report.

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The archbishop of San Francisco said Friday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is Catholic, can no longer receive the sacrament of communion because she has declined to back down from her push for abortion access.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone wrote in a public post Friday that his “many requests” have not been accepted to speak with Pelosi, who is from San Francisco, since she vowed to keep Roe v. calf. The archbishop said he communicated to Pelosi on April 7 that, she should not publicly repudiate her “advocacy for abortion ‘rights” or refrain from referring to her faith in public, he would have no choice but to deny her communion. The archbishop’s reprimand is the latest development in political and religious debate as some leaders in the Catholic Church speak out against Catholic politicians who support abortion.

The archbishop referred to the Catholic Church’s Cannon 915, which says that, “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 Chatecism of the Catholic Church is against abortion.

“As you have not publicly repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come,” the archbishop wrote. “Therefore, in light of my responsibility as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be ‘concerned for all the Christian faithful entrusted to [my] care’ … by means of this communication I am hereby notifying you that you 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.”

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks in front of the steps to the House of Representatives with congressional members to speak on the Roe v. Wade issue May 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

The archbishop simplified his position in a follow-up tweet: “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,” he wrote.

The archbishop’s public post comes as the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade sparked renewed attention over the abortion debate, and a flurry of proposed laws both from those who support and oppose abortion.

But Pelosi isn’t the first politician to be reprimanded by those in the Catholic Church over abortion — bishops have debated whether President Biden, who is also Catholic, should receive communion as well. Pope Francis last year said he has never denied anyone communion, and encouraged Catholic leaders to avoid aligning themselves with politics.

Ultimately, in November 2021, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to approve a document that fell short of refusing communion to Mr. Biden or others who advocate for widespread abortion access.

Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report

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WASHINGTON (RNS) — Two days after Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco announced he would bar her from receiving the Eucharist in her home city due to her stance on abortion rights, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly received the sacrament at a Catholic church in the nation’s capital.

According to Politico’s Playbook, Pelosi received Communion on Sunday (May 22) during Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, a parish where President Joe Biden has also attended services. Footage from the church’s live stream of the service shows a person in an orange jacket resembling Pelosi coming forward as the Eucharist is being distributed and walking away behind other worshipers.

It’s not unusual for Pelosi, a Catholic who often discusses her faith, to attend Mass, but her decision to receive the Eucharist at Holy Trinity amounted to a rebuke of Cordileone, who is well known for his conservative and sometimes controversial views.

According to the Rev. John Beal, a canon lawyer and professor at the Catholic University of America, Cordileone’s ban is not believed to affect Pelosi’s ability to take Communion outside of churches under the archbishop’s purview.

“It applies only to ministers, ordained and non-ordained, in the Archdiocese of San Francisco,” Beal told Religion News Service in an email, noting that it applies to diocesan leaders as well as those who belong to a religious order. “It does not apply outside the Archdiocese.”

RELATED: Citing abortion rights, San Francisco Archbishop bars Pelosi from Communion

Several conservative bishops voiced support for Cordileone’s decision after his Friday announcement, but Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the leader of the Archdiocese of Washington, is one of several who have signaled that they don’t have any plans to deny Communion to politicians dissenting from church teaching . In 2020, when bishops and other Catholics began debating whether to deny Communion to Biden, a Democrat who backs abortion rights, Gregory told RNS he would continue to offer the president the sacrament.

“I don’t want to go to the table with a gun on the table first,” he said.

Asked if the policy remains in place for Pelosi as well, representatives for the Washington archdiocese did not immediately respond.

In this Sunday, April 12, 2020, file photo, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone celebrates Easter Mass, which was livestreamed, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Pope Francis met with Pelosi at the Vatican last year and in the past told reporters he has never denied anyone the Eucharist. After the pontiff met with Biden at the Vatican in October, the president said the pope told him to “keep receiving communion” despite heated debate about the issue among US bishops at the time.

Francis has not backed away from the church’s longstanding opposition to abortion. On Sunday, the pope celebrated a group participating in an Italian anti-abortion demonstration and stated that life “is always sacred and inviolable, and we cannot silence the voice of conscience.”

The Rev. Benjamin Hawley, a priest at Holy Trinity, mentioned the back-and-forth over abortion and communion in his Sunday homily, wrapping his sermon around a theme of God’s love. Hawley singled out three things he described as “weapons of mass destruction” that are “destroying our civic and church cultures” — exclusion, repression and scorn.

“Inhabitants of these latter cultures think they can solve the challenges of immigration at home, radical Islam abroad, abortion, Latin Mass, communion for political figures, coastal elites, and many others by excluding, repressing and scorning one group to leave their own group standing — perhaps as a white evangelical nation, a smaller, purer church, or coastal elites become national,” he said.

RELATED: Pope Francis meets with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Vatican

Hawley called for conservative and liberal Catholics and all Americans to come together, while admitting that major obstacles stood in the way in both the political and religious spheres.

“Worst of all for culture, country and church are the election deniers and Vatican II deniers who would exclude, repress and scorn all of us to gain the authoritarian control of culture, country and church,” he said.

In 2004, as then Senator John Kerry ran for president, a smattering of clerics threatened to bar him from taking Communion, though he was never denied the sacrament. During his White House run, Biden was reportedly denied Communion at a South Carolina parish in 2019 by a priest who justified the refusal by citing Biden’s support for abortion rights.

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