Since Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco excluded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from obtaining the Eucharist in his diocese on May 20, three more bishops from the conservative side of the Catholic Church have followed since then, citing her public backing for abortion rights as a reason to deny her the sacrament.Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, which borders Cordileone’s archdiocese, barred Pelosi from Communion on the same day that Cordileone determined in a public letter for her “to not be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiates her support for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and receive absolution.”

“I have visited with the pastor at St Helena and informed him that if the Archbishop prohibited someone from receiving Holy Communion then that restriction followed the person and that the pastor was not free to ignore it,” Vasa said in his statement, per report.

Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington and Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, a well-known conservative firebrand, joined Vasa on Wednesday.

Cordileone, Vasa, Burbidge, and Strickland are among a tiny but vocal number of bishops in the United States who feuded with their peers last summer about whether priests should deny Biden the sacrament because of his support for abortion rights.

Months later, a report on the subject was released, with the main recommendation being that American Catholics be better educated on the significance of the Eucharist.

Vasa cited an item of canon law in his speech Friday that, in his view, “makes it clear that providing sacraments to someone prohibited from receiving them has its own possible penalties.” As per Vasa, a person who willfully administers a sacrament to “those who are prohibited from receiving it” might be “punished with suspension” under canon law.

“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,” according to Canon 915.

Vasa’s reasoning, which defies the widely held assumption that Communion denials are restricted to a single bishop’s diocese, was dismissed by Fr. John Beal, a canon lawyer, and teacher at the Catholic University of America.