Pelosi’s Canonical Gambit

This week many Catholic news sites are commenting on the report that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appealed to the Vatican to reverse the edict of San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone barring her from receiving Communion. This commentary is entirely based on a story posted by the National Catholic Reporter, running under the headline: “Nancy Pelosi’s Communion ban to be resolved by Vatican.”

Before we all plunge too deeply into how the Vatican might resolve the case, let me hit the brakes. We don’t know that the Vatican has the case. The Reporter is convinced that Pelosi has filed a canonical appeal. But we don’t know that. The story, as it appears on the Reporter site, does not justify the headline.

Here is the sum total of evidence that the Reporter presents to support the claim that Pelosi’s appeal is pending in Rome:

“My understanding, as long as Rome has the case, it hasn’t been resolved,” Pelosi said in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter

That’s it. She did not say that she has filed a canonical case. She did not respond to a request for the identity of her canon lawyer—if in fact she has one. The journalist who wrote the story, whose sympathy for Pelosi is unmistakable, admits in his account that “it is unclear when she sought Vatican intervention.” In fact it is unclear if she sought Vatican intervention.

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