Pelosi Says Her Church Has Not Denied Her Communion For Supporting Abortion Rights

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 05 Aug 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an interview with C-SPAN's "Q and A" Sunday said that her support for abortion rights has not conflicted with her requests to receive Holy Communion in the Roman Catholic Church, as it has for other lawmakers, The Hill reports. During an interview with "Q & A" host Brian Lamb, she was asked to comment on opposition from Catholic Church officials to allowing lawmakers to receive Communion who support abortion rights -- including Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), who both ran for president.

Pelosi in the interview said, "I think some of it is regional. It depends on the bishop of a certain region and fortunately for me, communion has not been withheld, and I'm a regular communicant so that would be a severe blow to me if that were the case." The Hill reports that Pelosi did not speak directly about how her views on abortion conflict with those of the Catholic Church. She said there are many issues that the Catholic Church cares about, noting that the Bible mentions poverty more than 2,000 times (Cusack, The Hill, 8/3). Pelosi was one of several Catholic lawmakers who support abortion rights to receive received Communion in April during a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in Washington, D.C. (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/18).

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