The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, may have received communion at papal Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, though not from the Pope, but rather a priest serving at the Mass.
The priest distributing communion may not have known who she was, seeing as there were many priests of several nationalities serving at the Mass.
Pelosi is a practicing Catholic, and an outspoken advocate of legislation to increase access to abortion.
Just last month, the archbishop of her home diocese in San Francisco, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, told te Speaker that she was not to receive Holy Communion due to her position on abortion.
“You are not to be admitted to Holy Communion until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abotion,” the Archbishop said in a public letter addressed to Pelosi.
Yet while on a family vacation in Rome, the U.S. House Speaker met with Pope Francis before attending papal Mass for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
JM
