Pelosi on Catholic bishop's comments about receiving Communion: 'I can use my own judgment on that'

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for May 13

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed Catholic bishops who do not believe she should receive Communion due to her views on abortion.

"I think I can use my own judgment on that but I'm pleased with what the Vatican put out on that subject. Did you read that?" Pelosi, D-Calif., told a reporter at her weekly press conference.

"It basically says don't be divisive on the subject. Thank you," Pelosi said before exiting the conference. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will convene for a national meeting next month, with plans to vote on drafting guidelines for Communion. Some bishops have been pressing for President Biden and other public figures who support abortion to be excluded from the sacrament.  

The head of the Vatican’s doctrine office issued a warning to the conference to deliberate carefully to avoid sowing division. 

VATICAN SOUNDS ALARM OVER US BISHOPS' POTENTIAL PLAN TO DENY BIDEN COMMUNION IN PRO-LIFE FIGHT 

Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote in a letter that any new policy "requires that dialogue occurs in two stages: first among the bishops themselves, and then between bishops and Catholic pro-choice politicians within their jurisdictions."

Ladaria also said any new statement on who was worthy to receive Communion should not target Catholic politicians but Catholics as a whole, and he questioned whether the conference’s policy identifying abortion as a "preeminent" issue would be misleading if it "were to give the impression that abortion and euthanasia alone constitute the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest accountability on the part of Catholics."

Ladaria also advised bishops to seek unanimous support within their ranks for a national policy, so as not to become "a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church in the United States."

SF ARCHBISHOP SUGGESTS PELOSI, BIDEN SHOULD BE DENIED COMMUNION 

He also said the new policy could not override the authority of individual bishops to make Communion decisions in their own dioceses.

Pelosi’s hometown bishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, has said that those who support abortion should not come forward for Communion, He took aim at "public figures," threatening exclusion from the sacrament. 

"If you find that you are unwilling or unable to abandon your advocacy for abortion, you should not come forward to receive Holy Communion," Cordileone said in a pastoral letter released earlier this month. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He added: "Please stop pretending that advocating for or practicing a grave moral evil – one that snuffs out an innocent human life, one that denies a fundamental human right – is somehow compatible with the Catholic faith."

"It is not. Please return home to the fullness of your Catholic faith. We await you with open arms to welcome you back."

Fox News' Sam Dorman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.