President Donald Trump named the advisory board members of the Religious Liberty Commission, chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. One of the advisory board members, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, previously denied former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) communion.
“After numerous attempts to speak with Speaker Pelosi 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 she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion,” Cordileone wrote on social media in 2022.
Pelosi later said that she “received Communion anyway.”
“That’s his problem, not mine,” she said in an interview last year with the National Catholic Reporter.
Addressing his role in Trump’s commission, Archbishop Cordileone said, “Religious liberty is a critical issue in our time that needs to be defended and addressed. I am happy to join my brother bishops in providing a Catholic voice on this important topic at a national level.”
The commission will be tasked with “producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations,” a fact sheet on the matter says, noting that the group will focus on parental rights, freedom of conscience, school choice, attacks on churches, free speech, and other areas.
Other advisory board members include Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia; Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas; Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the Executive Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values; Kristen Waggoner, the CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom; Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, a co-founder of the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States; and several others.
