CHRISTIANNEWS.COM.- The US Conference of Catholic Bishops will address at its spring general assembly whether President Joe Biden, any Catholic or politician who supports abortion rights, should be allowed to receive the Eucharist.
According to some observers, the controversy is less about the sacrament than about the lack of communion between the American bishops themselves and between the American conference and the Vatican.
“This is more about Pope Francis than it is about Joe Biden,” said David Gibson, director of the Center for Religion and Culture at Fordham University, in an interview with Religion News. “It’s more about the future of the church than it is about Eucharistic theology.”
The Vatican and US bishops are uniform in their opposition to abortion, with Pope Francis comparing abortion to “hiring a hit man.”
The pope’s vocal opposition to abortion, which he calls “a grave mortal sin,” is often cited by prelates who oppose administering Communion to pro-choice political leaders.
The division between the Vatican and the US bishops is not over content, but over method.
difficult dialogue
On almost all issues, Francis is an advocate of the winding and difficult road of dialogue and discernment, an approach reflected in a letter sent May 7 by the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog to the president of the United States Conference of Bishops, Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles. , as the issue of denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians heated up.
Cardinal Luis Ladaria, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called on the bishops to maintain an “extensive and serene dialogue” with each other, while they strive to “engage in dialogue” also with Catholic politicians who hold positions of choice.
Bishops must make “every effort,” the letter said, to take into account the global context of the church.
Only then, Ladaria wrote, would bishops “face the difficult task” of deciding what course of action will benefit “the grave moral responsibility” of the local church.
After reaching a “true consensus,” the US bishops could issue a statement on the matter, the cardinal continued, though he acknowledged that even then “it could have the opposite effect and become a source of discord rather than unity.”
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver, who pushed for the Communion ban, concurred in a May 25 statement on the need for “calm dialogue.” But like-minded commentators say that, given the church’s stance on abortion, there isn’t much left to discuss.
Vatican and White House
“There is little that is not clear here, and further ‘dialogue’ will not clarify much of anything,” wrote George Weigel, a papal biographer and distinguished senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy in Washington, in the conservative magazine First Things. .
Regardless of what the US bishops decide, the Vatican has made no secret that it hopes to strengthen ties with the Biden administration. “I think Biden and the White House have a relationship with the Vatican that does not go through the USCCB offices,” Gibson said.
Biden and Francis are likely to meet in the coming months, as the pontiff has signaled that he may attend the COP26 environmental summit in Scotland in November.
The following month, the G20 meeting of developed nations will take place in Italy, providing another opportunity for the two to speak, Christian HeadLines reported.
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