In accordance with existing USCCB policy, it would still leave decisions on withholding Communion up to individual bishops. In Biden’s case, the top prelates of the jurisdictions where he frequently worships Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware, and Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. have made clear that Biden is welcome to receive Communion at churches they oversee.
The document-in-the-works results from a decision in November by the USCCB’s president, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, to form a working group to address the “complex and difficult situation” posed by Biden’s stances on abortion and other issues that differ from official church teaching. Before disbanding, the group proposed the drafting of a new document addressing the issue of Communion a project assigned to the doctrine committee.
U.S. Catholic bishops may press Biden to stop taking Communion
By DAVID CRARY Associated Press April 28, 2021 9:38am Text size Copy shortlink:
When U.S. Catholic bishops hold their next national meeting in June, they ll be deciding whether to send a tougher-than-ever message to President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians: Don t receive Communion if you persist in public advocacy of abortion rights.
At issue is a document that will be prepared for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by its Committee on Doctrine, with the aim of clarifying the church s stance on an issue that has repeatedly vexed the bishops in recent decades. It s taken on new urgency now, in the eyes of many bishops, be
When U.S. Catholic bishops hold their next national meeting in June, they’ll be deciding whether to send a tougher-than-ever message to President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians: Don’t receive Communion if you persist in public advocacy of abortion rights. At issue is a document that will be prepared for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by its Committee on Doctrine, with the aim of clarifying the church’s stance on an issue that has repeatedly vexed the bishops in recent decades. It’s taken on new urgency now, in the eyes of many bishops, because Biden only the second Catholic president is the first to hold that office while espousing clear-cut support for abortion rights. Such a stance, by a public figure, is “a grave moral evil,” according to Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities and believes it’s necessary to publicly rebuke Biden on the issue.
Catholic Archbishop Joseph Naumann Says Biden Trying to Usurp Church s Authority With Abortion Policies
On 4/28/21 at 2:33 PM EDT
As attitudes about abortion rights shift under President Joe Biden s administration, Catholic archbishops in the U.S. are pushing back, even going as far as claiming that the president is attempting to usurp the Church s authority with his abortion policies.
Biden is the second Catholic president in U.S. history and the first of the two to hold office while signaling support for abortion rights. The policy stance has upset bishops and inspired a sense of urgency to send a hardline message that such a stance is a grave moral evil, according to Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, the
When U.S. Catholic bishops hold their next national meeting in June, they ll be deciding whether to send a tougher-than-ever message to President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians: Don´t receive Communion if you persist in public advocacy of abortion rights.
At issue is a document that will be prepared for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by its Committee on Doctrine, with the aim of clarifying the church s stance on an issue that has repeatedly vexed the bishops in recent decades.
It s taken on new urgency now, in the eyes of many bishops, because Biden - only the second Catholic president - is the first to hold that office while espousing clear-cut support for abortion rights.