U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) attends St. Peter and Paul Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on June 29, 2022. REUTERS / Remo Casilli
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VATICAN CITY, June 29 (Reuters) – Nancy Pelosi, the president of the U.S. House of Representatives who is banned from communion in her hometown of San Francisco because she supports abortion rights, receive the sacrament at a Mass said by Pope Francis on Wednesday. .
A witness said the speaker, who is Catholic and visiting Rome, received 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 make communion himself in these ceremonies.
Although the conservative archbishop of the city, Salvatore Cordileone, forbids Pelosi to receive her in San Francisco, a regular commune in a parish in Washington, DC, where the archbishop of the American capital allows it.
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Francis has no control over who receives communion during papal masses and it was unclear if he was aware that Pelosi was in church.
Whoever wants to take the sacrament only approaches one of the dozens of priests who spread out across the huge basilica.
Last month, Cordileone issued an order against Pelosi, 82, who was making communion in his archdiocese. Since then, at least three more Conservative bishops have banned him from receiving communion in his dioceses.
Cordileone’s order of May 20 stated that “one should not be admitted to Holy Communion unless and until he publicly repudiates his support for‘ rights ’to abortion and confesses and receives absolution for the their cooperation in this evil “.
Pelosi has described as cruel, outrageous and heartbreaking the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that overturned the historic Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973 that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to abortion nationwide.
The Mass was also attended by Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the United States House who is one of Pelosi’s political opponents and who has celebrated the Supreme Court decision on Friday.
Both Pelosi and Gingrich attended an Independence Day reception on Tuesday evening at the residence of U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Joe Donnelly. He spoke of his faith in an address to attendees. Gingrich’s wife, Callista, is a former U.S. ambassador.
Last October, US President Joe Biden, who is also a Catholic, received communion while attending Mass at the American Church in Rome, a day after meeting Pope Francis. Biden later said the pontiff had told him he was a “good Catholic” who could receive the sacrament.
Biden, the second Catholic president of the United States after John F. Kennedy, has said he personally opposes abortion but, as an elected official, cannot impose his views on others.
Francis has rejected American bishops who politicize communion.
“Communion is not a prize for the perfect,” the pope told reporters last year when asked to comment on the U.S. debate on abortion and Catholic politicians. “Communion is a gift, the presence of Jesus and his Church.”
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Report by Philip Pullella, edited by Jon Boyle, Mark Heinrich, Alexandra Hudson
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