GREETING

By His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America

To the Clergy of the San Francisco Metropolis Bay Area

Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity

San Francisco, California

March 1, 2023

Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco,

Your Grace[s],

Dear brothers of Christ,

Blessed Lent!

Yesterday I was with the brethren in Sacramento and was very impressed by their dedication and enthusiasm for our preparation for the Holy Passover. Today I have the pleasure of being with you – the ministers of the Bay Area. But allow me to say this about your beloved Metropolitan Gerasimos. His Eminence is the pastor of a pastor. His love for all of you, his dedication to serving your needs, and his constant desire to help his clergy are very moving to see.

Thank you, my good brother, for the ministry of Christ you have brought to this vibrant metropolis over the years. Your archpastoral ministry to the flock of Christ here in the western states is an example for all of us.

In fact, your Metropolitan’s example is a shining example of the pastoral care written by Saint Gregory the Great in his classic Liber Regulae Pastoralis, the “Book of the Pastoral Rule”. I wholeheartedly recommend the text to you. Like the “ladder” for monks, this would be good reading at any time of Lent. In chapter five of this book, Saint Gregory describes the clergy as those who fulfill the prototype of levirate marriage, in which the brother must marry his deceased brother’s wife and raise children in his name.

And don’t we? We who are the younger brothers of him who gave himself for the life of the world? Do we not raise children in His Holy Name and call them “Christians” when they come from the source of baptism, which is the matrix of the Church?

We read about this strange custom of levirate marriage in the Gospel reading at matins on Holy Tuesday. The Sadducees confront our Lord with the story of the woman who married seven brothers. They try to trap him with their legal arguments and are confused when the Lord gives his accusers his final testimony:

“He is not the god of the dead, but of the living!”[1]

What a grand ending to this story! Christ is the elder brother who willingly dies for us. But as the One who rose from the dead, He empowers our ministries to raise children to His glorious name. What a privilege for us, my confreres, to receive such a special grace.

Therefore, as we journey through this Lent, let us remember our great responsibility and duty to educate, train, educate, and guide our elder brother’s children. For He died and rose again to make the whole human family to be the family of God.

Thank you very much!

Happy Lent and Happy Easter again!

Photo: Kostas Petrakos

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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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According to a new letter released by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will no longer be allowed to receive the Eucharist at Mass in her home diocese.

“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others,” Cordileone writes in the letter addressed to Pelosi, D-Calif.

The letter continues:

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.

Pelosi, who says she is a Catholic, has long been in favor of abortion.

Throughout her career in Congress beginning in 1987, Pelosi has voted for several pieces of pro-abortion legislation as well as voted against abortion bans like the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.

Pelosi was also instrumental in getting the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, which have codified abortion into federal law, through the House last year.

“By passing the Women’s Health Protection Act in September, the Democratic House took bold action to defend health freedom for every person and enshrine into law the essential protections of Roe v. Wade,” Pelosi said of the legislation, which eventually failed in the Senate.

Cordileone, who has served as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in since 2012, has frequently tried to convince Pelosi to change her stance on abortion.

In response to Pelosi’s support of the Women’s Health Protection Act, the archbishop helped to organize a “Rose and Rosary for Nancy” campaign in October 2021 with The Benedict XVI Institute.

Thousands of roses were delivered to Pelosi’s office in San Francisco as a result of the campaign.

In a video promoting the campaign, Cordileone said “This is a critical time in our country when we especially need to pray for our political leaders as we see our country moving more and more in the direction of the culture of death.”

He specifically mentioned Pelosi, adding “Our leadership is very important, so I invite you all to join me in prayer and sacrifice for the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from here in San Francisco.”

While there is argument among rank and file Catholics about whether abortion is acceptable, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a summary of Catholic beliefs, is clear.

The catechism states,

Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

The catechism adds,

Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.

For Catholics, taking the Eucharist or Communion is an enormously important act. Politicians who have been active in supporting abortion have drawn calls from Church officials for her to be banned from receiving it before.

Last May, Cordileone sent a pastoral letter expressing his view that the Eucharist be refused to pro-abortion public figures, and in 2019, then presidential nominee Joe Biden, who is Catholic, was refused Communion at a mass in South Carolina.

In November 2020, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of the Washington, DC archdiocese said he would not refuse to give Biden the Eucharist over his views on abortion.

Catholics believe that the bread and wine involved in the process of communion actually becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

The catechism states, “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.'”

Last September, Pelosi was asked about her views on abortion and the criticism from Cordileone.

“The archbishop of the city — of that area, of San Francisco — and I have a disagreement about who should decide this,” Pelosi said, per the Washington Post. “I believe that God has given us a free will to honor our responsibilities.”

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, an uncompromising enemy of apartheid and a modern day activist for racial justice and LGBT rights, died on Sunday at the age of 90. South Africans, world leaders and people around the world mourned the death of the man who was believed to be the country’s moral conscience.

Tutu worked passionately, tirelessly and non-violently to tear down apartheid – South Africa’s brutal, decades-long regime of oppression against its black majority that only ended in 1994.

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The spirited, outspoken clergyman used his pulpit as the first black bishop of Johannesburg and later the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, as well as frequent public demonstrations, to mobilize public opinion against racial inequality, both domestically and globally.

Nicknamed “The Arch”, the little tutu became a prominent figure in his nation’s history, likened to Nobel Prize winner Nelson Mandela, a prisoner during the white rule who became South Africa’s first black president. Tutu and Mandela shared a commitment to building a better, more equal South Africa.

When Mandela became president in 1994, Mandela appointed Tutu chairman of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which exposed the abuses of apartheid.

Tutu’s death on Sunday “is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s departure from a generation of outstanding South Africans who left us a liberated South Africa,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“From the sidewalks of the resistance in South Africa to the pulpits of the great cathedrals and places of worship around the world to the prestigious setting of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, the arch distinguished itself as a non-sectarian, integrative advocate of universal human rights. ” he said.

Tutu died peacefully at the Oasis Frail Care Center in Cape Town, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Trust announced. He had been hospitalized several times since 2015 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997.

“He has turned his own misfortunes into a teaching opportunity to raise awareness and alleviate the suffering of others,” said the Tutu Foundation. “He wanted the world to know that he had prostate cancer and that the sooner it was discovered, the better the chances of treating it.”

For the past few years he and his wife Leah have lived in a retirement home outside of Cape Town.

Former US President Barack Obama praised Tutu as “a moral compass for me and so many others. As a universal spirit, Archbishop Tutu was rooted in the struggle for liberation and justice in his own country, but also preoccupied with injustice everywhere. He has never lost his mischievous sense of humor and his willingness to find humanity in his adversaries. “

Tutu’s life was “entirely dedicated to serving his brothers and sisters for the common good. He was a true philanthropist, “said the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader and Tutu’s friend.

“His legacy is moral strength, moral courage and clarity,” said Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, in a video statement. “He felt for people. In public and alone he cried because he felt the pain of people. And he laughed – no, he didn’t just laugh, he cackled with joy – as he shared her joy. “

In Cape Town, a seven-day mourning period is planned before Tutu’s funeral, including a two-day laying out, an ecumenical service and an Anglican funeral mass in St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. The landmark of the southern city, Table Mountain, shines in purple, the color of the robes that Tutu wore as archbishop.

In the 1980s – when anti-apartheid violence gripped South Africa and the state of emergency gave the police and the military far-reaching powers – Tutu was one of the most prominent black leaders to speak out against abuse.

A lively joke eased Tutu’s tough messages and warmed otherwise grim protests, funerals and marches. He was brave and persistent, and a formidable force with a skilled talent at quoting appropriate scriptures to use the support for change.

The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize underscored his position as one of the most effective human rights advocates in the world, a responsibility he took seriously for the rest of his life.

With the end of apartheid and the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, Tutu celebrated the country’s multiracial society, calling it a “rainbow nation,” a phrase that captured the heady optimism of the time.

In 1990, after 27 years in prison, Mandela spent his first night at liberty in Tutu’s residence in Cape Town. Mandela later called Tutu “the archbishop of the people”.

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Tutu also advocated human rights internationally, particularly LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriages.

“I would not worship a homophobic God,” he said in 2013 and started a campaign for LGBTQ rights in Cape Town. “I would refuse to go to homophobic heaven. No, I would say, ‘Sorry, I would much rather go somewhere else.’ “

Tutu said he was “as passionate about this campaign as I have been about apartheid. For me it’s on par. ”He was one of the most prominent religious leaders advocating for LGBTQ rights – an attitude that brought him into conflict with many in South Africa and across the continent, as well as within the Anglican Church.

South Africa, Tutu said, was a “rainbow nation” promising racial reconciliation and equality, despite disaffection with the African National Congress, the anti-apartheid movement that became the ruling party after the 1994 elections. His frank statements long after apartheid sometimes angered partisans who accused him of being biased or non-contact.

Tutu was particularly outraged by the South African government’s refusal to grant the Dalai Lama a visa, which prevented the Tibetan spiritual leader from attending Tutu’s 80th birthday and a planned meeting of Nobel Prize winners in Cape Town. The government rejected Tutu’s allegations and bowed to pressure from China, a key trading partner.

In early 2016, Tutu defended the reconciliation policy that ended white minority rule amid mounting frustration among some black South Africans who felt they had not seen the economic opportunities expected since the end of apartheid. Tutu had headed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the apartheid atrocities and granted amnesty to some perpetrators, but some people believed that more former white officials should be prosecuted.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on October 7, 1931 in Klerksdorp, west of Johannesburg, and became a teacher before entering St. Peter’s Theological College in Rosetenville in 1958. He was ordained a priest in 1961 and became a chaplain at the University of Fort Hase six years later.

He then moved to the tiny South African kingdom of Lesotho and Great Britain, and returned home in 1975. He became Bishop of Lesotho, Chairman of the South African Council of Churches, and in 1985 the first black Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg. In 1986 Tutu was named Cape Town’s first black Archbishop. He ordained female priests and promoted gay priests.

Tutu was arrested in 1980 for joining a protest and his passport was later confiscated for the first time. He got it back for trips to the US and Europe, where he spoke to the UN Secretary General, the Pope and other church leaders.

Tutu called for international sanctions against South Africa and talks to end apartheid.

Tutu often held funerals after the massacres that marked the negotiation period 1990-1994. He railed against the political violence black against black and asked the crowd: “Why are we doing this to ourselves?” In a powerful moment, Tutu defused the anger of thousands of mourners at a township soccer stadium after the 1992 massacre of 42 people in Boipatong, and led the crowd in chants proclaiming their love for God and themselves.

As the head of the truth commission, Tutu and his panel heard harrowing statements about torture, murders and other atrocities during apartheid. At some of the hearings, Tutu cried openly.

“Without forgiveness there is no future,” he said at the time.

The Commission’s 1998 report found the forces of apartheid most to blame, but also found the African National Congress guilty of human rights abuses. The ANC sued for publication of the document and received a reprimand from Tutu. “I have not struggled to remove a group of those who thought they were tin gods to replace with others who are tempted to believe them,” Tutu said.

In July 2015, Tutu renewed his 1955 vows with Ms. Leah surrounded by their four children.

“You can see that we followed the biblical invitation: we have multiplied and are fruitful,” Tutu told the congregation. “But we all want to say thank you … We knew that we would be nothing without you.”

Tutu leaves behind his 66-year-old wife and their children.

Once asked how he would be remembered, he told The Associated Press, “He loved. He laughed. He cried. He was forgiven. He forgave. Very privileged. “

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WASHINGTON (CBS SF / AP) – House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi pushed back on Friday against Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Joseph Cordileone for his outspoken criticism of COVID-related restrictions on worship by California health officials.

Pelosi, a San Francisco Bay Area Catholic, said she missed going to Sunday mass but criticized the archbishop’s recent protest restrictions on larger public gatherings. She said he shouldn’t endanger people’s lives.

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“With all due respect to my Archbishop, I think we should pursue science in this regard,” Pelosi said.

Indoor services are currently banned in San Francisco and there is a strict 12-person limit for outdoor services.

The right to worship has become a touchstone in the debate over state and local rules to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Archbishop Cordileone said the rights of worshipers were “wrongly suppressed” by the government. Several churches nationwide are suing to stop restrictions.

“We recognize that the government has the right to make adequate public health regulations,” he wrote in the Washington Post. “But when the government asserts authority over the church’s right to worship, it is crossing a line.”

Pelosi said she recently attended an outdoor personal service in San Francisco and received communion – she picked up the waffle from the priest as allowed instead of having it put directly on her tongue. She regularly joins online services.

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The San Francisco Bay Area Democrat said she had to register in advance to attend and found that about a dozen people had spread by the time she arrived.

“Very, very, very far apart,” she said.

She asked if the archbishop’s message had been misunderstood.

“I’m sure he must have meant if it is scientifically safe, rather than endangering people’s health, if they want to go to church,” she said.

Pelosi noted that belief and science are sometimes at odds.

“Here people say to me: You are a person of faith, why do you believe in science?” She said.

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“I say I believe science is an answer to our prayers. It is a creation of God and an answer to our prayers. “

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