Pelosi takes communion at papal Mass in Vatican

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who is banned from receiving communion in her home city of San Francisco because she supports abortion rights, took the sacrament at a Mass said by Pope Francis on Wednesday.


Reuters | Updated: 29-06-2022 17:45 IST | Created: 29-06-2022 17:09 IST
Pelosi takes communion at papal Mass in Vatican
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (file photo) Image Credit: ANI

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who is banned from receiving communion in her home city of San Francisco because she supports abortion rights, took the sacrament at a Mass said by Pope Francis on Wednesday. A witness said the speaker, who is Catholic and visiting Rome, took communion from a priest in a section of St. Peter's Basilica during a papal Mass on the feast of St. Peter and Paul.

The pope does not give communion himself at such ceremonies. Although Pelosi is barred from receiving it in San Francisco by the city's conservative archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, she regularly takes communion at a parish in Washington, D.C., where the archbishop of the U.S. capital allows it.

Francis has no control over who receives communion during papal Masses and it was not clear if he was aware that Pelosi was in the church. Anyone who wishes to take the sacrament merely approaches one of the dozens of priests who fan out through the huge basilica.

Last month, Cordileone issued an order against Pelosi taking communion in his archdiocese. The order said, "she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until she publicly repudiates her support for abortion 'rights' and confesses and receives absolution for her cooperation in this evil".

Pelosi has described as cruel, outrageous, and heart-wrenching last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized a woman's constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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