The pontiff made the comments during a 90-minute interview at the Vatican with Reuters news agency on Saturday, although the article was not published until Monday morning. The interview came just a week after the US Supreme Court on June 24 struck down the 1973 ruling that guaranteed women’s rights to medical abortion nationwide. Pope Francis was asked about the court’s decision, but said he did not have enough information to speak about it from a legal perspective. Instead, he reiterated the teachings of the Catholic Church that life begins at conception. In this composite image, pro- and anti-abortion rights campaigners gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2021 in Washington, D.C., and Pope Francis (Inset) arrives for an audience at the Communities of the Neocatechumenal Way on June 27, 2022 in Paul – Room VI in the Vatican. Getty He reportedly compared abortion to “hiring a hit man” and said: “I ask: Is it legitimate, is it right, to take a human life to solve a problem?” It is not the first time the Pope has made the controversial comparison. In May 2019, while speaking at an anti-abortion conference organized by the Vatican, he said: “Is it legal to throw away a life to solve a problem? Is it legal to hire a murderer to solve a problem?” But he also said his opposition to abortion was not a religious issue, but a human one, during the same event. And despite his strong words condemning abortion, he has in the past expressed sympathy for women who chose them. It also made it easier for them to get rid of what Catholics consider the sin of abortion. Earlier in the interview with Reuters over the weekend, the pope was asked about a debate in the US over whether a Catholic politician who supports the rights of others to choose abortion should be allowed to receive Communion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, was barred from receiving Communion in churches in her San Francisco diocese in May. When asked about the matter, the Pope replied: “When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem. That’s all I can say.” When Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone publicly announced that the California Democrat would no longer be allowed to receive Communion in San Francisco, he said the move was because of her stance on abortion and that it was “purely pastoral, not political.” In a letter shared with the public, Cordileone wrote: “After many attempts to speak with her [Pelosi] to help her understand the serious wrong she is doing, the scandal she is causing, and the danger to her own soul she is endangering, I have decided that the point has come when I must make a public declaration that she should not be admitted to Holy Communion, unless and until she publicly renounces her support of abortion ‘rights’ and confesses and receives absolution for her collaboration in this evil in the sacrament of Penance.” However, Pelosi regularly receives Communion at a parish in Washington, DC, and last week, received the sacrament at a papal Mass in the Vatican. In October 2021, Pelosi and the Pope met at the Vatican. Details of their meeting were not released, but Pelosi later described it as a “spiritual, personal and official honor.” A month before they met that year, The National Catholic Reporter asked Pope Francis how the church should respond to parishioners who supported abortion rights. The Pope reportedly said he would “never” deny Communion to anyone. “No, I have never denied the Holy Eucharist to anyone, to anyone! I don’t know if anyone has come to me under these circumstances, but I have never denied them the Holy Eucharist, since the time I was a priest.” Newsweek reached out to the Holy See Press Office, which represents the Pope and the Vatican, and Pelosi’s office for comment. Pope Francis dismissed rumors he was planning to resign and laughed off claims he was suffering from ill health. However, he reiterated his position that he may resign one day if it made it impossible for him to lead the Church. Asked when that day might come, he replied: “We don’t know, God will say.” Bookies are already taking bets on who will replace the pontiff if he decides to retire. Update 7/4/22 10:17 AM ET: This article has been updated throughout.
