Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi, who was just arrested for DUI in California, met Pope Francis on Wednesday and received Communion during a papal Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. They were permitted to do this despite Paul’s arrest, and despite Nancy’s stance on abortion.

Two witnesses told Daily Mail that Nancy and Paul sat in a VIP diplomatic section and received Communion along with the rest of those present in the congregation.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who is Nancy’s home archbishop, has previously said that he will no longer be giving her the sacrament in his archdiocese because she is a supporter of abortion rights. He has gone even further by saying that Nancy must either repudiate her support for abortion or stop talking about her Catholic faith publicly.

Nancy has ignored him, and continued to do both frequently. In fact, she talked about her Catholic faith just last night during a diplomatic reception at the residence of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.

“Faith is an important gift, not everyone has it but it is the path to so many other things,” she said.

Nancy then met with the Pope before Wednesday’s Mass and even received his blessing.

Nancy’s meeting with the pope comes less than a week after she slammed the overturn of Roe v. Wade, calling it an “outrageous and heart-wrenching” decision by the Supreme Court that furthers the Republican Party’s “dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions.”

The overturn of Roe v. Wade was announced on Friday, and it hands the issue of abortion rights back to the states.

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Paul, 82, was arrested on May 28 near his home in Napa Valley and charged with DUI causing injury. His trial is set to take place sometime in July, and officials have said that he is allowed to both use a car and travel until then.

ABC News reported that the DA’s office has said that the punishment for DUI causing injury as a misdemeanor “includes up to five years of probation, a minimum of five days in jail, installation of an ignition interlock device, fines and fees, completion of a court-ordered drinking driver class and other terms as appropriate.”

We previously reported that Paul was behind the wheel of a car and was speeding in 1957 when he lost control and crashed in an incident that killed his older brother David, who was only 19 years-old. Paul has been married to Nancy since 1963, and they have five children together.

This piece originally appeared in RobManess.com and is used by permission.

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