Pelosi receives Communion at Vatican despite pro-abortion rights stance

Christopher Hutton

June 29, 08:16 AM June 29, 08:16 AM

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was offered a chance to receive Communion during her visit to the Vatican.

Pelosi received Communion on Wednesday while attending a Mass presided over by Pope Francis. Pelosi was involved despite several Catholic leaders in the United States barring the Democratic leader of the House from receiving Communion over her pro-abortion stance.

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The speaker received Communion while visiting the Vatican on a family vacation, according to Crux Now. She did not receive it directly from the pope, instead receiving it from one of the priests assisting with the ceremony. It is also unclear if the priests were aware of Pelosi's identity.

Pelosi's home archbishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, ruled on May 20 that Pelosi was barred from receiving Communion in his diocese.

"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," Cordileone said in a letter announcing the ban, according to the Pillar. "Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."

At least four dioceses in the U.S. have barred Pelosi from receiving Communion, although the Washington, D.C., diocese has continued to serve the House leader since Cordileone's proclamation.

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Pelosi has regularly expressed her support for pro-abortion rights policy and has said so multiple times while also referencing her faith as inspiring her decision. She announced on Tuesday that she was working with others to develop legislation that would "codify freedoms which Americans currently enjoy," specifically the freedom to get an abortion.

Pelosi is not the only Democrat who has faced denial of Communion over support of pro-abortion policies. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted in June 2021 to move forward with a document that could have theoretically barred President Joe Biden from Communion. The conference amended the document during its November 2021 meeting to deal with Communion but did not bar the president.