(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.), the former speaker of the House, talked in an interview at Georgetown University last month about speculation that she had wanted to be a priest.

Pelosi was being interviewed by the Rev. Jim Wallis, a protestant clergyman, who served on President Barack Obama’s “White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.” Wallis is now the chairman of Georgetown’s “Center on Faith and Justice.”

 “In terms of my being a nun—and they said I want to be a priest,” Pelosi said to Wallis in the interview at Georgetown.

“Imagine, the priest every day, they have the power of the miracle, the mystery—I don’t know if it’s called a mystery but—of transubstantiation, of turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ,” said Pelosi. “That is real power. Now, we are talking power.

“And that’s why I was more attracted to that than being a nun,” said Pelosi. “On the other hand, maybe one day women will be able to do that as well. That’s something I’m thinking about; I was hoping the Pope would, too--but anyway.”

“Something we should think about a lot more,” said Wallis.

Here is a transcript of Pelosi’s exchange with Wallis about wanting to be a priest:

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “In terms of my being a nun—and they said I want to be a priest. Imagine, the priest every day, they have the power of the miracle, the mystery—I don’t know if it’s called a mystery but—of transubstantiation, of turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. That is real power. Now, we are talking power. And that’s why I was more attracted to that than being a nun. On the other hand, maybe one day women will be able to do that as well. That’s something I’m thinking about; I was hoping the Pope would, tooo--but anyway.

Father Jim Wallis: “Something we should think about a lot more.”