Nancy Pelosi endorses women priests in defiance of pope: ‘That is real power’
Jeremiah Poff
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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) expressed hope that one day the Catholic Church would permit women priests, saying the ability to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ is “real power.”
Pelosi, a Catholic, was speaking at an event at Georgetown University last week when she made the comments during a conversation with Rev. Jim Wallis, the director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice. During the conversation, she said that she had been “attracted” to the idea of being a priest because of the power of the clerical office and expressed disappointment that Pope Francis had not permitted the ordinations of women to the Catholic priesthood.
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“Every day [priests] have the power … of turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, that is real power, now we’re talking power, and that’s why I was more attracted to that than being a nun,” she said. “On the other hand, maybe women will be able to do that as well, that’s something to think about, something I was hoping the pope would do.”
The Catholic Church has not permitted the ordination of women priests throughout the entirety of its 2,000-year history, tracing the practice back to Jesus choosing 12 male disciples. Recent popes have reaffirmed that teaching on multiple occasions.
The most declarative statement on the matter came in 1994 when Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic constitution Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, reiterating the long-held teaching women could not be ordained to the Catholic priesthood “in order that all doubt may be removed.”
“I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful,” the late pope wrote.
Last year, Pope Francis reiterated the church’s long-standing teaching, telling America Magazine in a November interview that ordaining women presented “a theological problem.”
“Why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that,” Pope Francis said, tying the ministry of priests to the apostle Peter, who Catholics hold as the first pope.
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Pelosi has had a history of clashing with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. At the same Georgetown event, she criticized Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco for publicly stating that she would be barred from receiving communion due to her stance on abortion.
“I have a problem with my archbishop, and I figure that’s his problem, not mine,” Pelosi said. “He made it very clear, maybe we’re not all God’s children. Maybe we do not have a free will.”