House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a practicing Roman Catholic, publicly rebuked San Francisco's Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in a TV interview on May 24.

Cordileone — a notoriously traditionalist and authoritarian cleric — sent Pelosi a letter in April informing her that he would bar her from receiving Holy Communion because she'd promised to codify Roe v. Wade in federal law.

The Catholic Church opposes abortion because it considers fetuses living human beings with human souls. In the past, some Catholic clergy have attempted to bar politicians who support abortion rights from communion, but Pope Francis has publicly opposed such harsh measures.

Although the Pope favors a more conciliatory approach, each bishop has authority to bar people from communion in his own diocese. Cordileone said he attempted to reason with Pelosi first, and only disqualified her from communion when she wouldn't do what he wanted.

In an open letter to San Francisco Catholics, Cordileone said he told Pelosi that she must either repudiate her support of abortion rights or stop speaking publicly about her Catholic faith. He'd asked several times to meet with the speaker, Cordileone said, but her office didn't respond.

"After numerous attempts to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, and the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion," Cordileone wrote.

In a May 24 interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Pelosi noted she came from a large Catholic family, and many of her relatives also oppose abortion.

"I respect people's views about that," Pelosi said. "But I don't respect us foisting it onto others."

Pelosi added, "Our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights. In fact he led the way in an initiative on the ballot in California."

Cordileone was, in fact, the architect of California's Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage in 2008. It was finally reversed by a federal court in 2010.

Over the past year, Cordileone has been among the most outspoken US bishops advocating that communion be denied to President Joe Biden and other politicians who support abortion rights.

The Archbishop of Washington DC, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has indicated he will allow Biden and other pro-choice Catholics to continue taking communion.

Cordileone was appointed archbishop of San Francisco by the ultraconservative Pope Benedict XVI.