House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has accepted her hometown archbishop's invitation to talk about Catholic teachings, but avoided mentioning her recent statements on abortion, which have been condemned by 10 Catholic prelates.
"I welcome the opportunity for our personal conversation to go beyond our earlier most cordial exchange about immigration and the needs of the poor to church teaching on other significant matters," Pelosi wrote San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer.
A spokesman for Pelosi, D-Calif., said the letter was delivered by hand to Niederauer Sept. 5.
That same day, Niederauer said Pelosi's recent statements on abortion "are in serious conflict with the teachings of the Catholic church."
On "Meet the Press" last month, Pelosi said "doctors of the church" disagreed on when life begins, and said abortion "continues to be an issue of controversy" in the Catholic Church.
At least 10 bishops have publicly condemned those remarks, saying the church has believed abortion is wrong since the first century.
"I regret the necessity of addressing these issues in so public a forum," Niederauer said, "but the widespread consternation among Catholics made it unavoidable."
Niederauer also said Catholics are not supposed to "pick and choose" which teachings to follow and that moral issues should not be dictated by opinion polls.
The San Francisco prelate added that "many Catholics" have written him about Pelosi's remarks, "very often" asking him whether the congresswoman should be allowed to receive Communion.
Niederauer noted the disagreement among U.S. Catholic bishops about denying Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, but didn't state his opinion on the matter.
