Catholic bishops vote to draft Communion guidelines: What happens next?
(ANALYSIS) Following three days of contentious debate, the U.S. Catholic bishops approved a measure on Friday to draft a statement that could deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, at their spring conference held remotely because of the pandemic, voted 168 to 55 — with six bishops abstaining — to create a document that would create clarity on the matter. The establishment of a teaching document on “Eucharistic coherence” would provide bishops with a clearer framework with which to address the issue of pro-abortion politicians who present themselves for Communion.
Asked at a news conference Thursday whether Biden, only the second Catholic president in U.S. history, should be able to receive communion, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., said, “I can’t answer that question.”
“We will be looking at that whole issue of eucharistic consistency. ... When you look at cannon law, that is a decision of his bishop,” he added.
Some bishops want politicians who identify as Catholic to hold public policy positions that are not at odds with church teaching on abortion, along with marriage, LGBTQ rights, religious liberty and other issues concerning moral theology. Others argue that lawmakers can hold political positions that clash with the church — while expressing private support for church teachings — and continue to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion.
Biden, a lifelong Catholic, has said he is personally opposed to abortion, but doesn’t think he should impose that belief on all Americans. Since taking office in January, Biden has signed several executive actions that were hailed by abortion-rights advocates.
During a White House event on Friday, Biden was asked about the possibility that he could be precluded from receiving Communion because of his public position regarding abortion.
“That’s a private matter and I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said, without offering any other comment on the matter.
Was the vote politically motivated?
It’s not lost on the bishops that any decision they make as a church only highlights the political polarization that already exists in the country. Throw in a divisive issue like abortion into this mix and it certainly takes on political ramifications.
Bishop Rhodes, who leads the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, noted during the news conference that the 2022 midterm elections were never a factor when putting this vote forward.
“It never really crossed my mind the politics of it, as far as the timing,” he said.
That doesn’t mean the discussion in the press won’t take on a political narrative. Critics of this decision have already called it a weaponization of the sacrament. The news coverage in the mainstream press has also framed the issue this way.
New York Times reporter Elizabeth Dias gave us a glimpse of how she would be framing her story with a question during the news conference. This was her agenda-driven question to Bishop Rhodes after first asking whether the bishops could deny Biden Communion:
President Biden is clearly the most observant president in almost 50 years since Jimmy Carter and he goes to Mass regularly and it seems that he just isn’t observant in ways that works for some of the conference. ... I also talked to a lot of young people and I’m wondering, what does this mean – this is clearly a political message here and it’s undeniable. People said that [on Thursday]. So what does that mean for a generation of Catholics who say this is a church that has no place for President Joe Biden has no place for me. Are you happy with a smaller, purer church?
There’s a lot to unpack in that statement/question, but it does reveal the secular point of view (compared to that of a traditional Roman Catholic) on this issue. Bishop Rhodes answered the best he could by saying the church doesn’t turn anyone away.
Here is how Dias’ news story began:
The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States, flouting a warning from the Vatican, have overwhelmingly voted to draft a statement on the sacrament of the Eucharist, advancing a political push by conservative bishops to deny President Biden communion because of his support of abortion rights.
The decision, made public on Friday afternoon, is aimed at the nation’s second Catholic president, the most religiously observant commander in chief since Jimmy Carter, and exposes bitter divisions in American Catholicism. It capped three days of contentious debate at a virtual June meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The measure was approved by a vote of 73 percent in favor and 24 percent opposed.
The Eucharist, also called holy communion, is one of the most sacred rituals in Christianity, and bishops have grown worried in recent years about declining Mass attendance and misunderstanding of the importance of the sacrament to Catholic life.
But the move to target a president, who has regularly attended Mass throughout his life, is striking coming from leaders of the president’s own faith, particularly after many conservative Catholics turned a blind eye to the sexual improprieties of former President Donald J. Trump because they supported his political agenda. It reveals a uniquely American Catholicism increasingly at odds with Rome.
The Washington Post also couldn’t resist a similar narrative, calling Biden “deeply Catholic” at odds with the bishops.
Many in the secular media see this as a Biden issue ahead of the midterm elections. It’s a political vendetta, according to these critics, against him by Trump-loving “conservative bishops.” For many in the press, there is no room for nuance in this discussion or even context on what the church teaches and has already said on this issue.
A group of 60 Catholic Democratic members of the House of Representatives issued a statement urging the bishops to drop any effort to exclude politicians from receiving Communion.
“We solemnly urge you to not move forward and deny this most holy of all sacraments, the source and the summit of the whole work of the gospel over one issue,” the statement said.
Is there precedent to any of this?
The ramifications of such a document could change U.S. Catholicism going forward, further exposing the fault lines that divide so many Catholics already. While this move gained lots of attention and headlines, the reality is that there is precedent here. As the press focuses on the electoral ramifications from this move, the bishops are not.
For example, for broader context, canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law says people “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
Last month, Russell Shaw, writing for Angelus News, noted the following:
The first thing to realize about the U.S. bishops’ concern with pro-choice Catholic politicians who receive holy Communion is that, from the bishops’ point of view, the issue isn’t politics, but rather the reverence due the Eucharist and the perilous spiritual situation of someone who receives the sacrament unworthily.
It’s true, of course, that nobody really deserves the Eucharist. But Christ has given us this gift, and we ought to receive it — provided we do so with clean consciences. And for supporters of abortion, there’s the rub. For advocating this grave moral evil (or a ‘right’ to choose abortion, which amounts to the same thing) is a form of participation in the evil.
If anything, this proposed document isn’t so much a rebuke of Biden or other pro-choice politicians like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but one that aims to clarify church beliefs as well as send a message to cardinals and bishops to adhere to such guidelines.
The vote has its roots dating back to 2004 when a pro-abortion Catholic John Kerry was running for president. Then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, tasked at the time by the Vatican to look into the issue, told bishops that refusing Communion to Kerry would make the sacrament “a perceived source of political combat.”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, sent a letter to bishops – which the now-disgraced McCarrick declined to show them – saying Communion could be denied to someone who persists in serious public sin. The U.S. church hierarchy eventually decided to leave it to individual bishops to decide how to handle the issue.
McCarrick was defrocked after allegations surfaced that he had molested young men and seminarians over several decades.
In surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center, about 56% of U.S. Catholics polled said abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 67% said Biden should be allowed to receive Communion during Mass.
What happens next?
The proposed document, according to America magazine, would “include the theological foundation for the church’s discipline concerning the reception of Holy Communion and a special call for those Catholics who are cultural, political or parochial leaders to witness the faith.”
The final document would need to be approved by a two-thirds majority and scheduled to be voted on this November.
The next few months should continue to be contentious. The Vatican would need to approve the documents’ final draft. Confusion, however, persists over what the Holy See told the bishops on the eve of their vote.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, has made it clear he does not support denying Biden Holy Communion. At the same time, Bishop-elect William Koenig of Wilmington, Del., Biden’s home parish, has not commented publicly on the issue ahead of his installation ceremony next month. Both men have given Biden Holy Communion.
Bishop Donald Hying, of Madison, Wisconsin, said during Thursday’s debate that he has spoken with many people — clearly not the same ones Dias has chatted with — who expressed to him confusion by Biden’s push for “the most radical pro-abortion agenda in history.”
But San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy, however, said the USCCB would suffer “destructive consequences” from putting together a document targeting Catholic politicians.
“It would be impossible,” he added, “to prevent the weaponization of the Eucharist.”
Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.