SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 31, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking with LifeSiteNews about the matter of worthiness to receive Holy Communion last week, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said that Church teaching on the matter “has been very clear and consistent from literally the very beginning."

The Church's teaching goes "all the way back to St. Paul who writes in 1 Corinthians that anyone who does not receive the Eucharist worthily, that is if they are in a state of sin, blasphemes the body and blood of the Lord," the archbishop explained.

The leader of San Francisco’s 444,000 Catholics noted that those who would dissent “from a defined Church teaching” and those who would violate the moral teaching of the Church in a serious way, “are not properly disposed to receive Holy Communion.”

“As St. Paul teaches, if they dare to approach knowing that they are in such a state of sin, they bring condemnation upon themselves,” he said. “This is not a harsh judgment of the Church, but our understanding of the Eucharist is that it is not simply a way of welcoming people, a way of affirming people.”

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He concluded by noting that the sacrament of penance is there for all Catholics who find themselves in such situations so they can “confess their sins and receive sacramental absolution to be restored to a state of grace so they can worthily receive Holy Communion.”