Notes from the wafer watch

One observation from this morning's Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral: Rudy Giuliani, the twice-divorced former mayor of New York, took Communion. HIs reception of the consecrated host was clearly visible to me and all the other reporters in the cathedral because it was captured on television cameras broadcasting the Mass to the press seats to the side of the altar. After the Mass, Giuliani, who is a Republican, confirmed his decision to take Communion, despite being married outside the church, to Reuters Vatican correspondent Phil Pullella.

Giuliani's action follows the declaration earlier in the week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, that she intended to take Communion during the papal Mass at Nationals Park on Thursday.

The decisions by Giuliani and Pelosi, of course, are hardly unusual -- large numbers of Catholics who have remarried without an annulment or who support abortion rights routinely take Communion, despite church rules prohibiting that. But the question of whether politicians who publicly violate or oppose church teachings should take Communion became an issue during the 2004 presidential campaign, when an abortion-rights-supporting Catholic, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, was the Democratic nominee, and the issue continues to resurface from time to time. The church's actual position on the denial of Communion remains somewhat unsettled -- a handful of bishops have suggested they would deny Communion to abortion-rights-supporting politicians, but most, including Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, have said they do not wish to politicize the Eucharist in that way.

posted by Michael Paulson, Globe Staff

For all the blog posts on the papal visit, go here.

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