Rep. Nancy Pelosi this week publicly called out San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone after he barred her from communion in the churches he oversees.

‘I have a problem with my archbishop – well, the archbishop of the city that I represent – but I figure that’s his problem, not mine,’ the former speaker of the house said in an interview with Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice in Washington, D.C., noting that she had five children in six years. 

Pelosi, 82, said she asks congress members who are pro-life if they have had as many kids in the span of six years. ‘You want to talk about this subject, OK? We go right to the one issue, because everything else, we are pretty much in sync when it comes to the social compact of the Catholic bishops and the rest. But they are willing to abandon the bulk of it because of one thing and that’s the fight that we have.’ 

In a letter published last May, Cordileone wrote that Pelosi should not present herself at Mass and said that priests would not allow her to receive communion if she did attend. 

‘I am hereby notifying you that you are not to present yourself for Holy Communion and, should you do so, you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance,’ Cordileone wrote in the letter. 

SUPPORT AMOUNTS AMONG US BISHOPS BARRING PELOSI FROM RECEIVING COMMUNION 

The Archbishop added that he had previously written to Pelosi on April 7, and stated that ‘should you not publicly repudiate your advocacy for abortion ‘rights’ or else refrain from referring to your Catholic faith in public and receiving Holy Communion, I would have no choice but to make a declaration, in keeping with canon 915, that you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.’ 

Pelosi did not comply with these requests, according to Cordileone’s May letter. 

Last summer, Pelosi did receive communion at the Vatican in a mass marking the feasts of St. Peter and St. Paul presided over by Pope Francis. 

Pelosi called the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year an ‘insult’ to women. 

‘It’s a slap in the face to women about using their own judgment to make their own decisions about their reproductive freedom,’ she said at the time, adding that it would be ‘on the ballot’ in the 2022 midterms.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Pelosi and the archbishop for comment. 

Fox News’ Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report. 

The Florida House of Representatives has passed a bill eliminating the requirement for an individual to obtain a permit in order to carry a concealed firearm in the state. 

The bill, referred to by supporters as a constitutional carry law, passed the Republican-controlled House with 76 yes votes and 32 no votes on Friday afternoon, Click Orlando reported.

House Bill 543 would allow lawful gun owners in the state to carry without asking the government for a permit and without paying a fee. Those who wish to still obtain a permit can do so if the bill becomes law. The bill would also not change who can and cannot carry a firearm.

‘The NRA would like to thank the Florida House for passing NRA-spearheaded constitutional carry,’ Art Thomm, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Florida state director, told Fox News Digital in a statement on Friday. ‘This vital legislation guarantees that law-abiding Floridians will not need government permission or pay any fees to protect themselves and their loved ones.

‘Lead sponsor Representative Chuck Brannan and Speaker Paul Renner played key roles and we thank them for their outstanding leadership throughout the process. The NRA, our millions of committed members, and Florida gun owners eagerly anticipate Florida joining the ranks as America’s twenty-sixth constitutional carry state.’

Brannan, the Republican sponsor of the bill, has referred to the measure as a ‘public safety’ bill.

‘This bill is a big step, a big step to help the average law-abiding citizen, to keep them from having to go through the hoops of getting a permit from the government to carry their weapon,’ said Brannan, Fox 13 Tampa reported. 

‘It is also not going to change who can and who cannot carry a gun. People that are prohibited now are still going to be prohibited.’ 

Constitutional carry laws, the NRA said, strengthen ‘the right to self-defense in Florida by recognizing the right of any law-abiding adult who is at least 21 years old and legally eligible to obtain a carry permit, to carry a handgun without first having to obtain government permission.’

Critics argue that easier access to concealed carry will lead to more gun violence.

‘America has seen a devastating increase in gun deaths every year and more mass shootings than days this year,’ Katie Hathaway of Moms Demand Action said during a public comment session earlier this month.

‘This legislation will not make us safer, it’s a threat to everyone’s right to feel safe from gun violence and not be shot.’

The bill will now head to the Senate where it is expected to pass and then be sent to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis has previously signaled his support of a constitutional carry bill if it lands on his desk. His office hasn’t yet publicly commented on the bill.

There are currently 25 states that have constitutional carry or permitless carry laws on the books, meaning Florida could tip the U.S. into becoming a constitutional carry-majority nation.

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Parents cannot be required to pull their children from private schools in New York that fail to meet state-designated standards, a judge decided, striking down a key provision of rules recently passed to strengthen oversight of such schools, including those specializing in religious education.

The ruling in a state trial court in Albany came in response to a lawsuit brought by ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools, called yeshivas, and related advocacy groups over education rules enacted last fall. Under the rules, the state’s 1,800 private and religious schools must provide an education that is ‘substantially equivalent’ to that of a public school.

Opponents in the ultra-Orthodox community say the rules improperly target yeshivas, some of which focus intently on religious instruction with far less teaching in secular subjects such as English, math and science.

Judge Christina Ryba on Thursday rejected an argument that the state regulations were unconstitutional. But she said state officials overstepped their authority in setting penalties for schools that don’t adhere to them.

Specifically, she said education officials lack legal authority to make parents take their children out of schools that fall short of the requirements, and they don’t have the authority to order that those schools be closed.

Ryba said parents of those children could still receive required instruction in combination with sources, such as home schooling.

A co-plaintiff cheered the judge’s rejection of the ‘draconian penalties.’

‘In striking those provisions of the regulations, the Court agreed with parents and non-public schools across New York State who opposed these regulations,’ read a prepared statement from the group Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools.

The state Education Department said the decision validates its commitment to improving the educational experience for all students.

‘We remain committed to ensuring students who attend school in settings consistent with their religious and cultural beliefs and values receive the education to which they are legally entitled,’ read the prepared statement.

It was not clear if any aspects of the ruling would be appealed.

Democratic House Speaker Ronald Mariano said Friday that the House won’t meet with state Auditor Diana DiZoglio about an audit DiZoglio has launched into the Legislature.

DiZoglio, a Democrat who served as both a state representative and senator, said she is forging ahead anyway, She has described the audit as the first such review in a century of the Legislature that she hopes will ‘increase transparency, accountability and equity in an area of state government that has been completely ignored.’

Mariano said in a letter to DiZoglio Friday that the House’s financial accounts are already public.

Any ‘performance assessment’ by DiZoglio of House actions including ‘active and pending legislation, committee appointments, legislative rules, and its policies and procedures’ would violate basic separation-of-powers principles, he said.

Any such assessment is the sole responsibility of the House, he said, adding that voters are the final decision-makers of the performance of elected officials.

‘Therefore, given that your attempt to conduct a performance audit of the House of Representatives exeeds your legal authority and is unconsitutional, your request to meet to begin such an audit is respectfully denied,’ he wrote.

DiZoglio said she is moving forward with her review.

‘I find it disappointing that the Speaker is fighting an audit of what is happening in the people’s house, where the people’s business is conducted, using the people’s money,’ she said in a written statement. ‘We are not asking for permission and will continue conducting our audit as planned to help increase transparency, accountability and equity for everyday families.’

DiZoglio had earlier said the audit is critical, given how much legislative work is conducted out of sight.

The 200-member Legislature is exempt from the state’s open meeting law. Democrats — who hold overwhelming majorities in both chambers — routinely hold closed-door caucuses to discuss legislation away from the ears of the press and public.

‘Historically, the Legislature has been a closed-door operation, where committee votes have been hidden from the general public, and legislation has been voted on in the dark of night,’ DiZoglio said when she announced the audit.

Democratic Senate President Karen Spilka has also cited the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.

Under Senate rules, the chamber undergoes an audit every fiscal year by a public accounting firm experienced in auditing governmental entities and makes that audit public, she said.

Senate business is also made public through journals, calendars and recordings of each session, Spilka said.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Connecticut are backing a proposal to move up the date of Connecticut’s presidential primary in hopes of giving the small state a bigger say in choosing presidential candidates.

The bill, which unanimously cleared a key committee on Friday, would move the date of the primary from the last Tuesday in April of each presidential election year to the first. The legislation now awaits further action in the House of Representatives.

In a moment of political comity, the chairpersons of the state Democratic and Republican parties recently appeared together to testify in favor of the legislation.

‘For too many presidential elections, Connecticut voters have been shortchanged in the primaries by being scheduled on the last Tuesday in April,’ Connecticut Democratic Party Chair Nancy DiNardo told legislators. She noted that presidential candidates in both parties have often been selected by the time Connecticut primary voters cast their ballots.

Benjamin Proto, chair of the Connecticut Republican Party, predicted that changing the primary date could encourage more voters to engage in the primary process and possibly encourage candidate visits. That, he said, would be an ‘economic boon’ to the state.

‘We know that when the candidates come to a state, they spend a lot of money; not only on their media buys, but also within our hospitality industry, on salaries, on staff,’ he said. ‘So there’s a tangential benefit to do this, to making us a competitive state that candidates want to come to.’

Connecticut, which leans Democratic, has seven electoral votes.

On the (last) first Tuesday in April of each year in which the President 4 of the United States is to be elected, each party shall conduct a primary 5 in each town if the names of two or more candidates are to be placed on 6 such party’s ballot in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.

A factory farm has agreed to pay the Wisconsin Department of Justice $215,000 to settle pollution allegations.

The Legislature’s finance committee is slated to approve the deal during a meeting Tuesday. According to an analysis of the deal by the Legislature’s attorneys, the deal will settle allegations that Kinnard Farms improperly spread manure in Kewaunee and Door counties between 2018 and 2022, failed to timely submit an engineering evaluation for a feed storage area and failed to timely submit annual nutrient management plan updates.

The settlement also calls for Kinnard Farms to upgrade two waste storage facilities and a feed storage area.

The Kinnard operation includes 16 industrial farms with about 8,000 cows. The company has struggled with agricultural pollution for years as contaminants began showing up in private wells.

Kinnard Farms owner/operator Lee Kinnard said in a statement that the farms decided to settle rather than face a lengthy and costly dispute. He said the farms ‘look forward to pursuing state-of-the-art manure management technology.’

Kinnard Farms sued the state Department of Natural Resources in April 2022 over permitting changes that require the operators to limit the size of their herd and monitor groundwater for contamination. That lawsuit is still pending.

President Biden accidentally commended China instead of Canada while praising the nation’s stance on migration on Friday.

Biden made the gaffe during a speech at the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa while he was discussing U.S. immigration policies.

‘In the United States, we’re expanding legal pathways for migration, to seek safety and humanitarian…humanitarian basis, while discouraging unlawful migration that feeds exploitation and human trafficking,’ the president began.

‘So today, I applaud China for stepping out…excuse me, I applaud Canada,’ Biden stumbled while Canadian Members of Parliament laughed.

‘You can tell what I’m thinking…about China. I won’t get into that yet,’ Biden said. ‘I applaud Canada’s stepping up of similar programs.’

Biden did not reference China again during his address to Parliament, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted China’s competitive edge before Biden began speaking.

‘Economic policy is climate policy is security policy, with growing competition, including from an increasingly assertive China,’ Trudeau said. ‘There’s no doubt why it matters that we turn to each other now to build up a North American market on everything from semiconductors to solar panel batteries.’

Biden’s speech comes as tensions between the U.S. and China continue to escalate. Chinese officials threatened the U.S. Navy with ‘serious consequences’ on Friday after an American warship was spotted in the South China Sea.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for a statement, but has not heard back.

President Biden joked with Canada’s Conservative leader Friday, saying the United States ‘unfortunately’ believes that having differing political views is an act of loyalty. 

The remark came as Biden was escorted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into the House of Commons where he greeted dignitaries, senators, other party leaders and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. 

‘Pierre Poilievre, leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition,’ Poilievre said to Biden as they shook hands. 

‘Loyal opposition?’ Biden asks.  

‘We believe that opposition is an act of loyalty in our system,’ Poilievre.

‘We do too, unfortunately,’ the president responded before moving on to meet the next person.

Some online criticized Biden, saying while the remark may have been a joke, it reflects poorly on him. 

Biden met with Trudeau on Thursday for the first of two days of discussions on several topics. The U.S. and Canada secured a deal to return illegal migrants crossing the northern border that was slated to be announced Friday.