Hi, this is Hank Hennigraph, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the

Bible Insomain broadcast with a very important Hank Unplug Short.

What I'm going to talk about is something that's all over the news.

The reality that San Francisco's Archbishop Salvatore Cordeleone has said he would bar

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving communion in her home diocese

because of her stance on abortion, a stance which is radical rather than reasonable.

So why does the Archbishop feel so strongly about this? It is because he felt it

necessary to bar Pelosi for her personal protection. For a scripture makes plain, in the words of St. Paul, those who receive Christ's body and blood

unworthily eat and drink judgment to themselves. St. Paul going on to say that, for this reason,

many are weak and sick, and some are dead. In other words, from a biblical

perspective, the Eucharist has enormous power. It has the power to cause sickness and

even death. Nothing to trifle with. But there's also another reason that San Francisco's

Archbishop Salvador Cordillone was barring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving communion because of

her stance on abortion.

It is that the Eucharist is also an expression of the unity of the church.

As such, Pope Francis himself just last year said that a pro-abortion politician cannot take communion because they're out of the

community. And for his part, the Archbishop, in effect, was saying that when a practicing

Catholic spurns moral reality and political discourse, souls and lives hang in the balance.

And when souls hang in the balance, priests and bishops, ordained by God, have an obligation to act.

Now, Pelosi, when it comes to abortion, is not naive. She has said as much.

She has pointed out that she has studied this issue, the issue of abortion, as an ardent practicing

Catholic, and not just for a short period of time, but for a protracted, a long period of time.

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