ROME – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (California), a staunch advocate for abortion rights, received Holy Communion Wednesday during a papal liturgy at St. Peter’s Basilica, according to an attendee. The Vatican ceremony was in stark contrast to the decision of the conservative Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore J. Cordileone to order the priests of his diocese to stop the Eucharist from Pelosi. due to her attitude towards abortion. In September, Pope Francis had said, “I have never denied the Eucharist to anyone,” although he later added that he had never knowingly met a politician who supports abortion rights during the Communion and reiterated her position. church that abortion is “murder.” But Francis had said that the decision to provide communion to politicians who support abortion rights should be made by pastoral, not political. Pelosi disputes the Archbishop’s refusal of the Society for abortion rights The Pelosi Society comes shortly after the US Supreme Court overturned in 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, deletion of the right to abortion. In a statement on the decision, the Pontifical Vatican Academy of Life called for a “non-ideological” debate: “In the face of Western society losing its passion for life, it “The issue of human genealogy and the conditions that make it possible,” said Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, head of the academy. It was not 85-year-old Francis who personally handed over the holy wafer to Pelosi during Wednesday’s Vatican Mass, as his active participation in the services is increasingly limited to a knee condition that often requires him to use a wheelchair. Before the service, Pelosi had a greeting with the pope where she received a blessing, according to an attendee. The Vatican has not commented on the matter and declined to comment. But in a city-state like the Vatican, steeped in religious symbolism and the center of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, the Pelosi Society can hardly be overlooked. It was the day that Francis issued an apostolic letter praising the virtues of the Liturgy, reminding his church how such a feast belongs to “all the faithful who are united in Christ.” “The liturgy does not say ‘I’ but ‘we’,” Francis wrote in his letter, “and any restriction on the scope of this ‘we’ is always demonic.” In October, Francis met Pelosi during a private hearing at the Vatican, which the speaker later described as “a spiritual, personal and official honor”. It remains to be seen whether the Society given to Pelosi may have any influence on Cordilleone’s decision, which was shared by at least four other US-based dioceses. Cordilleone’s order to refuse Pelosi applies only to the churches of his diocese, where Pelosi resides. Pelosi rejected Cordilleone’s mandate, questioning whether he applied double standards and weightlifting, allowing politicians who support the death penalty – which the Catholic Church opposes – to take the sacrament. Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University, said what happened on Wednesday reinforces the impression that there are two approaches to abortion within the Catholic Church, an issue that is even more subtle after the Supreme Court overturned the ruling. Roe vs. Wade. It is not clear if the Vatican clearly intended Pelosi to receive the Eucharist, but the Vatican authorities would certainly be aware of her presence and her plans to attend the service in St. Peter, Fagioli said. “It simply came to our notice then. “Of course, in these matters, the Vatican can and must leave some things unsaid,” he said. “The fact that it was not the pope who gave it to the Society allows the Vatican to maintain a slight denial. It is not in their interest to point the finger at Cordilleone. “ But its overthrow Roe vs. Wade will make it harder for the Vatican to vigorously defend Pelosi, President Biden and other Catholics who support abortion rights. “As much as Roe vs. Wade “It was the law, one could say: ‘These people are Catholics, but they have to respect the law,’” Faggioli said. But Faggioli does not believe that Francis, who has called on the church to be more inclusive, will allow himself to be painted in a corner. Abortion has become one of the sectarian parameters used by Catholic conservatives in the United States to decide whether you are a Catholic, Faggioli said. This idea, he said, “does not belong to Pope Francis, who never changed the ecclesiastical teaching about abortion, but always argued that a church is not a provincial club.” “This is one of the main points of his papacy. “This is one of the things he and the bishops in the United States do not see clearly,” Faggioli said. correction An earlier version of this article said that the Liturgy that Pelosi attended took place on Friday. It happened on Wednesday.
