Wherever President Biden is, he has a habit that does not abandon him: he always makes sure to attend a Catholic Mass.
But now The faith of the President of the United States is under a new spotlight this week, as more than 200 The nation’s Catholic bishops meet virtually in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and among the topics of the meeting are the meaning of the Eucharist and whether the people who defend the right abortion may or may not receive communion.
Among the topics to be discussed is very specifically indicated to decide whether high-profile Catholic politicians, such as the President Joe Biden, they should be denied communion if they support abortion rights, reported CBS News .
Papal and Vatican contributor to CBS News, Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, said he opposed her n from the Catholic Church to abortion is clear. “Even Pope Francis, you know, has called him an abomination, ”Figueiredo told CBS News’s Ed O’Keefe.
The extraordinary discussion reflected the degree to which polarization has reached in the United States for the right to abort, guaranteed in the country since 1973 but become a battle horse for conservatives and some religious groups in the last three decades.
The proposal analyzed in the virtual meeting of the Catholic bishops, which lasts until this Friday, consisted of the possibility of write a “formal communication on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.”
Behind this initiative was hidden the campaign of a group of conservative bishops who are uncomfortable with the The fact that the first Catholic to occupy the Oval Office in six decades, President Biden, is also a staunch defender of the right to abortion.
Biden, a devout Catholic
To Biden, a devout Catholic who ac ude to mass every Sunday, they already denied him once in 2019 the possibility of receiving Communion due to this political stance, and his team has devoted time since then to ensure that, when you travel, you do not go to a church where your access to the sacrament may be vetoed.
The proponents of the proposal insisted to the USCCB that her plan would not eliminate the right to receive communion from Biden and other Catholic politicians who support free decision on the termination of pregnancy, such as the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
Initially, some conservative bishops proposed to go to that extreme, but they ended up reversing their intentions after the issue appeared in various media and the Vatican urged them to lower the temperature of the debate.
Pope Francis proclaimed this month that communion “is not the recompense saints, but the bread of sinners, ”and Spanish Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, sent a letter to the American bishops on the subject in May.
Ladaria warned that the issue could “become a source of discord”, as well as “lead to confusion” if the US bishops describe abortion and euthanasia as “the only serious issues” for Catholics.
Conservative bishops maintain their position
Despite the words of Ladaria, since 67 bishops requested that this issue not be addressed during the annual meeting, The president of the USCCB, the Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gómez, insisted on putting the matter on the agenda, and gave rise to a heated debate.
“This is an unprecedented situation in our country. We have never before had (…) a Catholic president who opposes the teachings of the Church, ”said the Bishop of Baker (Oregon), Liam Gary, referring to Biden.
His counterpart of Madison (Wisconsin), Donald Hying, assured that his parishioners are “confused by the fact of having a president who professes a devout Catholicism but promotes the most radical pro-abortion policies in the history” of the country.
Other bishops, reluctant to get too involved in partisan waters, asked for guarantees that, if a document on “coherence” at the time of communion is finally drawn up, it will not be will focus on Biden and will also not revolve around those who defend the right to abort.
USCCB Doctrinal Officer, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, stressed that the document would not mark a mandatory “national policy” and that it would not focus only “on pro-abortion politicians”, but would also “look at, for example, those who have si accused of human trafficking ”or“ white supremacism. ”
Even without prohibition in between, the simple idea of directing a reproach these people for receiving Communion alarmed many of the conference participants, in a context in which attendance at Mass and adherence to the Eucharistic ritual in the country is in descent.
The warning of the Archbishop of Washington
Among those who spoke Against the initiative was the Archbishop of Washington, Wilton Gregory, who assured that in his 38 years as bishop he had not seen anything that divided the episcopate so much.
“Creating this document will not bring us unity, in fact, it may harm us even more,” said Gregory.
The result of the vote on whether or not to draft the document will be announced this Friday.
If they did, they would need the support of two-thirds of the obi spos of the country and the green light of the Vatican to ratify the final communiqué, a difficult threshold to reach.
What is clear is that Biden will still have the right to receive Communion, because even if a document were approved to prohibit it, the Archbishop of Washington would have the power to decide whether or not to implement that veto, and has already made it clear that it will not.
However, for bishops like Chicago’s, Blase Cupich, the mere wording of the document would imply “falling into a trap”, creating “ambiguity” about whether the episcopate is aligned with the most conservative political positions, at a time when Catholics cannot afford to lose more faithful.
With information from EFE