The president of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has received communion without problems in Saint Peter's Basilica, thus challenging some US bishops who deny her communion for her support of women's right to abortion. In fact, the Democrat herself cannot take communion in her hometown, San Francisco, where the conservative Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone prevents her from doing so.
In full shock by the decision of the US Supreme Court. to annul the protection of the right to abortion, in force since 1973, Pelosi is visiting Rome, where she has been able to greet Pope Francis and yesterday participated in the traditional celebration of the US independence party at the country's embassy to Italy.
Pelosi, who is Catholic, went with her husband to Mass on the occasion of the feast of Saints Peter and Saint Paul, and received communion from a priest on one side of the Basilica. In these celebrations the Pope does not usually give communion himself, nor is there any type of Vatican control over the people who get up to carry out this sacrament.
A few weeks ago, the Archbishop of San Francisco sent a letter to Pelosi informing her that she cannot take communion in her archdiocese until she “publicly repudiates” her defense of the legitimacy of abortion. Since then, three other conservative bishops have also banned it in their dioceses.
The speaker of the House of Representatives is able to receive communion without problems in her Washington DC parish, and has shown no sign of wanting to obey the archbishop. In fact, she has commented that the Supreme Court ruling is "outrageous and heartbreaking" and meets the "dark and extremist objective of stripping women of the right to make decisions about their own reproductive health."
US President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic who regularly attends Mass, was also able to take communion quietly in Rome, and Francis said during his last audience that he was a good Catholic and should continue to take communion. The Argentine pope has always condemned the interruption of pregnancy, but he also opposes the politicization of the sacraments. In fact, during the mass, the Pontiff recalled that in the Church "there is room for everyone".
