Pelosi responds to archbishop denying her communion over abortion stance

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded Tuesday to the announcement by the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco that she can no longer receive communion because of her stance on abortion access. She noted that the Catholic church has not denied communion to lawmakers who back the death penalty — which also violates the church's Catechism. 

"I wonder about death penalty, which I am opposed to," Pelosi said in an interview on MSNBC Tuesday morning. "So is the church, but they take no action against people who may not share their view. ... So, we just have to be prayerful. We have to be respectful. I come from a largely pro-life Italian American Catholic family, so I respect people's views about that. But I don't respect us foisting it onto others. Now our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights, too, in fact, he led the way in some of the initiatives on — an initiative on the ballot in California. So, this decision taking us to privacy and precedent is very dangerous in the lives of so many of the American people."

Pelosi's interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Tuesday followed Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's public letter informing Pelosi, who is from San Francisco, that she may no longer receive the sacrament of communion because she has not backed down from her push for abortion access.