'The View' hosts rail against Catholics who support death penalty: 'Hypocrisy is in the church too'
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone barred Nancy Pelosi from communion over her abortion stance
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The co-hosts of ABC's "The View" criticized Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday for supporting the death penalty and capital punishment as practicing Catholics.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi a letter on Friday explaining that she should not receive communion during Mass due to her pro-choice stance on abortion.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was barred by the San Francisco Archbishop on Friday from receiving communion due to her pro-choice abortion stance. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The hosts of "The View" quickly came to Pelosi's defense, as Whoopi Goldberg said, "how dare you."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Host Joy Behar said that Pope Francis is not pro-choice, but that he's also "against capital punishment." She then pointed to Abbott, who she said "executed many people," and said that he was not denied communion.
"The hypocrisy is in the church too," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Behar later clarified her previous statement and noted that he "did not himself pull the switch on executions," but rather oversaw them.
Co-host Sunny Hostin also criticized Catholics who are pro-life in their abortion stance but not when it comes to the death penalty or capital punishment as hypocritical.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"And so while I believe that abortion is wrong, and I believe that the catechism of the Catholic Church that pro-life extends from conception through natural death. If you are a practicing catholic as Bill Barr is, as Greg Abbott is … then you should be pro-life from conception through natural death," Hostin said.
Greg Abbott was criticized by the hosts of "The View" for being pro-life on abortion while still believing in the death penalty. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
She explained that William Barr, while he was the attorney general, was honored at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, "which included an address from the twice divorced president at the time."
"And Greg Abbott is another Catholic who is a proponent of the death penalty. There’s also the Second Amendment. If you are truly a pro-life Catholic, then you have to support gun reform. So you have to be consistent, and the church just is not consistent," Hostin continued.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Behar also said that Abbott oversaw 55 executions. Hostin asked why the church was "weaponizing the sacrament" against Pelosi, but not others like Abbott and Barr.
San Francisco's Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi explaining that she should not receive communion during Mass due to her beliefs on abortion. (Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Goldberg said earlier in the segment that it was not the San Francisco Archbishop's "job" to decide if Pelosi should or shouldn't receive communion.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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. Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,'" Cordileone said in the letter to Pelosi.
The Archbishop was asked about the timing of the announcement during an interview as it came just weeks after the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito.
"The leaked decision and the Dobbs case really have nothing to do with the timing of it," Cordileone said in response to the question.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alito signaled in the draft opinion that the conservative majority of the Supreme Court was getting ready to overturn Roe v. Wade.