Catholic Bishops Approve Communion Guidelines, Avoid Rebuking Biden
NEW YORK — In an overwhelming show of support, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops voted Wednesday in favor of issuing a new document regarding the importance of Holy Communion — although the text did not single out President Joe Biden or other Catholic politicians as being unworthy of receiving the sacrament because they favor abortion rights.
The vote, which passed 222-8 with only three abstentions, cleared the required two-thirds majority threshold for passage and drew applause from the bishops present in Baltimore for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual fall meeting taking place this week.
“The Lord accompanies us in many ways, but none as profound as when we encounter him in the Eucharist," the document reads. “When we receive Holy Communion, Christ is giving himself to us. He comes to us all in humility, as he came to us in the Incarnation, so that we may receive him and be one with him.”
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For the past year, the issue primarily focused on whether Catholic policymakers should receive the Eucharist if they favored policies, most notably abortion, that are in direct contrast with Catholic teaching.
The adoption of the document — called “The Meaning of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church” — comes after much debate and intense arguing among bishops at the USCCB’s June meeting, in the press and on Twitter, which many saw as a proxy battle in the broader culture war that has pitted Biden and progressive politicians against many bishops.
The vote took place after Biden met with Pope Francis on Oct. 29 at the Vatican. After the meeting, Biden said the pope told him that he’s “a good Catholic” who should continue to receive Communion. The Vatican offered no comment at the time regarding the veracity of the president’s comments.
Biden is only the country’s second Catholic president since John F. Kennedy in 1960. Biden, a practicing Catholic who attends Mass on Sundays, supports abortion rights.
The 30-page document approved by the bishops makes just one passing reference to laypeople who “exercise some form of public authority.”
Those people, according to the document, “have a special responsibility to form their consciences in accord with the Church's faith and the moral law, and to serve the human family by upholding human life and dignity.”
Overall, the document offers guidelines — not a mandatory national policy — so the decision on whether to deny a politician Communion still comes largely down to that person’s bishop. Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who serves as Biden’s bishop in Washington, has said the president will not be barred from receiving Communion at churches within his archdiocese.
Before the vote, Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said it is the responsibility of the bishops to “care for the souls of these politicians” and that clergy should “not be afraid” to let lawmakers know how serious the abortion issue is for the church.
The National Catholic Reporter, a newspaper on the doctrinal left, called the document “tepid.”
“The document — immediately criticized online by conservative Catholics hoping the bishops would address politicians like Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — appears to represent something of a whimper ending to an initiative first begun by Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, after Biden's November 2020 election win,” the newspaper mused.
Biden could, however, still be denied the Eucharist if he were to attend Mass outside the D.C. archdiocese or his home in Delaware, where the president routinely receives Communion, should a local bishop deem him to be acting in violation to canon law.
Biden was previously denied Communion in 2019 at a Catholic church in South Carolina over his support for abortion.
The Vatican did not immediately comment on the bishops’ latest actions. Asked in September about the ongoing Communion debate, Pope Francis said, “I have never refused the Eucharist to anyone.”
Roman Catholics believe Holy Communion is a sacrament central to their faith — but also in transubstantiation, which is the conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus at consecration during Mass.
“The transformed bread and wine are truly the Body and Blood of Christ and are not merely symbols. When Christ said ‘This is my body’ and ‘This is my blood,’ the bread and wine are transubstantiated,” the USCCB says on its website. “Though the bread and wine appear the same to our human faculties, they are actually the real body and blood of Jesus.”
The bishops said they hope the new document will help Catholics understand the meaning of the Eucharist. A Pew Research poll in 2019 found that only one-third of U.S. Catholics know what transubstantiation is, while even fewer are going to confession.
Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila told Catholic News Agency that the document’s aim is “to present a clear understanding of the church’s teachings to bring heightened awareness among the faithful of how the Eucharist can transform our lives and bring us closer to our creator and the life he wants for us.”
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.