Rep. Nancy Pelosi has indicated that the Vatican is reviewing a current restriction, declared by her Archbishop, that prohibits her from receiving the Eucharist until she repents of her support for abortion.
The National Catholic Reporter reported Dec. 12 that in an interview, Pelosi said of the ban, “My understanding, as long as Rome has the case, it hasn’t been resolved.”
Jesuit Fr. John F. Baldovin, professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College, commented that it is very unlikely that the Vatican will overturn the ban, as the Holy See does not lightly overrule a bishop, according to The Reporter.
Pelosi did not offer any more information on the matter or on allegedly taking the case to the Vatican, according to The Reporter. She also did not specify which Vatican Dicastery was handling her complaint.
LifeNews is on GETTR. Please follow us for the latest pro-life news
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Archdiocese of San Francisco issued the ban to Pelosi in 2022 due to her public support for abortion. He wrote that a Catholic publicly supporting abortion “commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others,” and therefore, according to canon 915 from the Catholic Code of Canon Law, such a person could not be admitted to Communion.
CatholicVote previously reported that Pelosi revealed in an interview with The Reporter published on Dec. 10 that she has continued to receive Holy Communion, despite her Archbishop’s ban.
She stated, “I received Communion anyway. That’s his problem, not mine. My Catholic faith is, Christ is my savior. It has nothing to do with the bishops.”
Archbishop Cordileone responded on Dec. 10 in a written statement, beginning by asking “prayers for the Speaker’s conversion on the issue of human life in the womb, that it be consistent with the respect for human dignity she displays in so many other contexts.”
He then acknowledged his duty to shepherd souls, writing that “my overriding concern and chief responsibility is the salvation of souls.”
He invited Pelosi to continue engaging in dialogue, which he said has the power to melt hostilities and build new bonds of friendship.
“I ask this not only to dialogue in areas of disagreement,” he wrote, “such as if and when it can ever be morally permissible to kill innocent human life, but also in other critical areas where our views on behalf of human life and dignity are aligned.”
LifeNews Note: Grace Porto writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
