(LifeSiteNews) — Former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi admitted in a recent interview that she has continued to receive Holy Communion despite having been barred by her bishop, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, because of her outspoken public support for abortion.
The Democratic legislator told the heterodox National Catholic Reporter (NCR) that even though her bishop explicitly banned her from presenting herself for Communion in his diocese, “I received Communion anyway.”
“That’s his problem, not mine,” she added.
“My Catholic faith is, Christ is my savior. It has nothing to do with the bishops,” she insisted.
The self-professed Catholic has frequently and vocally supported abortion in contradiction to the teachings of the Catholic Church, in addition to strongly supporting other gravely evil practices condemned by the Church, such as contraception, in vitro fertilization, homosexuality, and transgenderism, including “gender transitions” for children.
The Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the literal Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ and that no Catholic who has committed a mortal sin is to present himself or herself for Holy Communion until he or she has confessed that sin in the Sacrament of Confession.
Canon 915 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law instructs that “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
“(Y)ou are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you (publicly) repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance,” Archbishop Cordileone wrote to Pelosi in May 2022.
“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others. Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion’ (Code of Canon Law, can. 915),” he said.
Quoting a 2004 letter to U.S. bishops from then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger regarding Communion for pro-abortion politicians, Archbishop Cordileone told the speaker of the House, “I am grateful to you for the time you have given me in the past to speak about these matters. Unfortunately, I have not received such an accommodation to my many requests to speak with you again since you vowed to codify the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in federal law following upon passage of Texas Senate Bill 8 last September.”
“That is why I communicated my concerns to you via letter on April 7, 2022, and informed you there that, should you not (publicly) repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,” the archbishop continued.
“As you have not (publicly) repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position and to receive Holy Communion, that time has now come.”
Banned over abortion, but in agreement with conservatives on the Vatican’s China policy
Interestingly, during the same NCR interview, Pelosi appeared to be “in sync” with conservatives on the Vatican’s China deal, sharing their criticism of the agreement, which was signed in 2018.
According to NCR, “Pelosi echoed conservative anti-Communist Catholics and religious freedom advocates who have blasted the arrangement by quoting a passage of the Gospel of Matthew that is a cornerstone of the Roman Catholic Church.”
“Let me say it this way, ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.’ Every bishop has sprung from that rock,” Pelosi told NCR.
“And now, the Chinese government?” she wondered.
Just as remarkably, Pelosi said, “With all the respect in the world for His Holiness, Pope Francis, my point of view is closer to the cardinal of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen,” who has long sounded the alarm about the Francis pontificate having handed over control of the Catholic Church in China to the country’s controlling Communist Party (CCP).