She can always head toward the line forming in front of Archbishop Wuerl, who has said publicly that he would not discipline or direct priests to deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politician Nancy Pelosi.
Despite her staunch stands in favour of abortion, embryonic stem cell research and same-sex ‘marriage’ Pelosi went on a publicity stunt in early January to portray herself as an Italian Catholic mother.
Archbishop Werul is following in the footsteps of his predecessor. In 2004, as the US Bishops were discussing the matter of Communion for pro-abortion politicians, Pelosi told the media that she would continue to take Holy Communion despite her pro-abortion position. She went so far as to misrepresent the Catholic faith as supporting her pro-abortion stance. “I believe that my position on choice is one that is consistent with my Catholic upbringing, which said that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live their lives in a way that they would have to account for in the end,” she said.
Responding in the media, Cardinal McCarrick who was heading up the bishops’ task force on the communion question, said, “I have not gotten to the stage where I’m comfortable in denying the Eucharist.” In fact, Cardinal McCarrick was on something of a campaign to conceal Rome’s insistence that pro-abortion politicians be denied Holy Communion.
McCarrick even spoken of Pelosi in his retirement. In comments to the Catholic News Service, Cardinal McCarrick said he considered Pelosi, “a very thoughtful and committed defender of human rights.”
For believing Catholics, however, the position of the Catholic Church on the matter is defined in canon law. Following the Scriptural principle found in 1 Corinthians 11:27, the Church’s canon law states at canon 915 that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.”