Pelosi received the Holy Communion at St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican on Wednesday. Last month, her home archbishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, denied her from receiving the sacrament in his archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Pope Francis. AP
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday received Communion during a papal Mass in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City.
Pelosi attended the morning Mass marking the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul, during which Pope Francis bestowed the woolen pallium stole on newly consecrated archbishops.
Pelosi was seated in a VIP diplomatic section and received Communion along with the rest of the congregants, according to two people who witnessed the moment.
The Communion has come a month after her home archbishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, denied her from receiving the sacrament in his archdiocese because of her support for abortion rights.
What’s the furore over Pelosi’s Communion?
Pelosi has long remained a supporter of abortion rights and in the days leading up to the recent Supreme Court order overturning the iconic Roe V Wade ruling, she has extended vocal support to women rights.
Her open support to abortion rights did not sit well with Cordileone, who said to have made numerous attempts “to speak with her to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating”.
“I have determined that the point has come in which I must make a public declaration that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiate her support for abortion ‘rights’ and confess and receive absolution for her cooperation in this evil,” he wrote in a May 20 letter to Catholics in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Cordileone, a conservative, has said Pelosi must either repudiate her support for abortion or stop speaking publicly of her Catholic faith.
Pelosi has done neither. She called the recent Supreme Court ruling removing constitutional protections for abortion an “outrageous and heart-wrenching” decision that fulfils the Republican Party’s “dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions.”
The significance of Pelosi receiving Communion
Pelosi met with Francis on Wednesday before the Mass and received a blessing, according to one of the Mass attendees.
While Francis presided over the Mass, he did not distribute Communion himself and Pelosi received the sacrament from one of the many priests who distributed it. From the time he was archbishop in Buenos Aires, Francis has rarely distributed Communion, precisely to prevent the sacrament from becoming politicized.
Pelosi’s partaking of the sacrament inside the Vatican during a Mass presided over by the pope was even more significant, and a sign of Francis’ unwillingness to refuse the sacrament. Francis has described the Eucharist as “not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”
Last year, President Joe Biden, another Catholic who also supports abortion rights, said after meeting with Francis that the pontiff told him to continue receiving the sacrament. Biden later received Communion during a Mass in a Rome church that is under the authority of Francis as bishop of Rome.
Asked about some U.S. bishops who wanted to refuse Biden the sacrament, Francis told reporters during an airborne press conference in September that priests shouldn’t be politicians and condemn their flock but should be pastors who accompany the faithful with tenderness and compassion.
With inputs from agencies
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