Time.news – Total clash between the American Catholic bishops and Joe Biden. With an overwhelming majority (168 yes and 55 no) the US Bishops’ Conference, the Usccb, approved a formal document “on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church” which could prevent the head of the White House and other favorable Catholic politicians the right to abortion to receive communion. Six bishops abstained.
Commenting hotly, the president said that “this is a private matter”, he expressed “doubts” that the ban could be approved, but he postponed the trial, letting it be known that he will talk about it “on Monday when I read the document. “.
On the other hand, the reaction of the Catholic democratic deputies was hard and immediate led by Alexandria Occasio-Cortez who ask the bishops “not to use communion as a political weapon. In a” declaration of principle “signed by 60 parliamentarians, the Catholic demos cite Pope Francis, when at the Angelus on 6 June he argued that” the Eucharist is not the prize of the saints but the bread of sinners. “A concept reaffirmed by the Vatican in a letter sent to the president of the Usccb, the conservative José Gomez, on the eve of the annual assembly which began on Wednesday in virtual form.
Already in the election campaign, the American bishops had made it clear that their hearts were beating for Donald Trump. Gomez complimented Biden on inauguration day but criticized his positions on abortion. In the crosshairs of the conservative wing of the US Church, with the go-ahead for the document on “Eucharistic consistency”, the suitability for communion of all those who hold public offices and support legislation in favor of termination of pregnancy, euthanasia, unions between people of the same sex.
“We will look into the whole question of Eucharistic consistency, if you look at canon law, this is the bishop’s decision,” commented Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the Episcopal Committee on Doctrine, which will begin work on the text in view of the general assembly of US bishops in November that could vote on the document to deny communion to Biden. A two-thirds majority is required, a quorum that has largely been exceeded with today’s vote. The last word would still be up to the Vatican.
The majority was overwhelming but the debate was heated. Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of Saint Louis presented a motion proposing that the vote be preceded by a debate without time limits, so that each bishop could make his voice heard.
The invitation to unity which, at the opening of the proceedings, on 16 June last, was launched by the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Monsignor Christophe Pierre, fell on deaf ears. Bringing Pope Francis’ greetings and “fraternal support” in his long speech, Pierre repeated the word “unity” more than twenty times urging “not to get bogged down in complicated theological concepts” and emphasizing that the American Church does not need to “invent a new program because it already exists and is that of the Gospel”. “When Christianity is reduced to custom, to moral norms, to social rituals, then it loses its vitality and its existential interest for the men and women of our time”.
Among those opposed to the document, Cardinal Blaise Cupich of Chicago, close to Pope Francis, who denounced the “ambiguity” of the affair, asking for time to investigate the question. The last time the bishops voted on communion for politicians dates back to 2004. Almost unanimously they established that the decision must be left to individual bishops. The final verdict will be from the Vatican. How will it end? We will find out soon. Who knows how many times while waiting for the decision, Joe Biden will look at the photo of Pope Francis which is displayed in the Oval Office.
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