Contacts between the Vatican and house speaker Nancy Pelosi are intensifying. As LPO learned, Pope Francis has already conveyed to California politicians that he would welcome her appointment as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See in 2022, when Pelosi's term in the House ends.

Pelosi has said publicly that the two-year term is her last as a House speaker. That information is a trait that confirms that it is becoming increasingly difficult for Pelosi to win the support of the most radical groups in the Democratic Party, congresswomen who see the Speaker of the House as an inescapable member of the party establishment.

The growth of these groups would complicate a new mandate, even in the event of a triumph in the 2022 mid-term elections. In the event of a defeat, her position as minority coordinator would be even more uncomfortable because she will be held responsible for losing the House to Republicans.

Pelosi has said publicly that the two-year term is her last as a House speaker.

Before any results are seen, Rome is considered a safeguard. Pelosi, like Joe Biden, is Catholic. In order to be the ambassador to the Holy See, she will require an endorsement from the Senate in Washington that will make it easier for her to eventually return to the Cabinet if the Democrats retain the White House.

Like other democrats that are welcome at the Vatican, Pelosi subscribes to the idea that there are ultraconservative forces that threaten the papacy of Jorge Bergoglio, inside and outside the Catholic Church. She believes that her arrival as ambassador, being a high-ranking politician in the United States, strengthens Francis' position.

In private, Pelosi speaks of multiple internal adversaries for Bergoglio, such as the archbishops of Africa and China and Cardinal Gerhard Muller, in Europe. At the moment, she does not reveal that the source of this scenario comes from her conversations with the pope's representatives.