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Pope Francis breaks silence on Roe reversal, criticizes denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians==

The Pope said that 'the Church loses its pastoral nature' when Communion is denied to pro-abortion Catholic politicians and that 'it causes a political problem.'

Pope Francis has broken his silence on the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which grants states the power to outlaw abortion, saying that bishops must be “pastoral” with pro-abortion politicians.

In a 90-minute interview with Reuters’ Vatican correspondent Philip Pullella, published Monday, the Pope said that while he respected the court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling which imposed abortion on all 50 states, he cannot “speak about it from a juridical point of view” because he had not studied the law, the report stated.

Although declining to comment on the once purported, and now overruled, “right” to abortion in the U.S., the pontiff did state his opposition to abortion, likening the barbaric practice to “hiring a hitman” in remarks reminiscent of his 2018 condemnation of abortion.

The Pope asked: “Is it legitimate, is it right, to eliminate a human life to resolve a problem?”

Pullella reportedly questioned Francis on the controversial issue of Catholic politicians receiving Holy Communion while openly supporting the “right” to kill children in the womb, especially in light of Catholic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi regularly receiving the Eucharist. Pelosi has advocated abortion and subsequently been barred from Holy Communion by her local bishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco.

The Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ and thus also that no-one who has committed a mortal sin is to present himself for Holy Communion until he has repented and confessed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Furthermore, Canon 915 of the Church’s Code of Canon Law instructs: “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”

On distributing Communion to pro-abortion politicians like Pelosi, Francis, who spoke in Italian and without aides present, said, “When the Church loses its pastoral nature, when a bishop loses his pastoral nature, it causes a political problem. That’s all I can say.”

The Pope’s remarks echo one he made during a September 2021 in-flight interview. Then Pope Francis told reporters that the question of distributing the Eucharist to pro-abortion politicians must be determined in the “pastoral dimension,” without “condemning,” and also that he has never denied the Eucharist to anyone.

Francis described a “hypothesis” in his earlier interview by which priests may give the Eucharist to pro-abortion politicians, suggesting that priests might be “close, tender, and give Communion.” At the same time he condemned clerics whom he said “go beyond the pastoral dimension” and “become a politician” by denying Communion to opponents of the Faith.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-breaks-silence-on-roe-reversal-insists-priests-must-be-pastoral-to-pro-abortion-politicians/