Associated Press: “U.S. Catholic bishops overwhelmingly approved a long-anticipated document on Communion on Wednesday that stops short of calling for withholding the sacrament from politicians such as President Joe Biden who support abortion rights but offers plenty of tacit justification for individual bishops to do so.
“The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ first major statement on Communion in 15 years, ‘The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,’ does not explicitly address the debate over elected officials, abortion and the sacrament that has surrounded the document over the past several months and partly inspired its creation in the first place. Instead, it gives an overview of church teaching, emphasizing the centrality of the Eucharist in the faith and worship and in part reflecting concern among bishops that many Catholics don’t know or accept such teachings.
“It was approved by a 222-8 vote at the conference’s fall assembly in Maryland after receiving only minor revisions in recent days by drafters on the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine. Drafters added a reference to defending ‘the unborn’ along with other vulnerable persons, such as immigrants, older adults and victims of racial injustice. They also bolstered the definition of ‘scandal’ as weakening the resolve of other Catholics to follow church teachings.”