It's been just over a week since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that they would begin working on a decision of whether to block President Joe Biden from receiving communion because of his political position on reproductive freedom. It isn't going over well, however.
Writing for the Washington Post on Sunday, EJ Dionne cited a Pew Research Center survey that despite Biden's views, "67 percent of U.S. Catholics still said that he should be allowed to receive communion; only 29 percent said he should not. Even among Catholic Republicans, 44 percent thought Biden should be able to receive. This put the majority of bishops not only on the extreme end of Catholic opinion generally but also at the far end of Catholic opinion even within the GOP."
Dionne explained that it isn't likely that Biden will be denied communion, as it would take Pope Francis to approve the decision by the USCCB. That'll never happen, as the Pope is opposed to "weaponizing" communion.
"In recent months, a number of conservative Catholic prelates have fueled the public discussion of the document by releasing their own pastoral letters on the Eucharist and pushing on fringe right-wing websites for the conference to advance a document banning pro-choice Catholic politicians from the Eucharist. Other bishops have published essays warning against the 'weaponization of the Eucharist' for political purposes," wrote The Catholic Reporter.
In 2013, Pope Francis issued a statement that the Eucharist is "not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak." So, the USCCB is essentially alienating people from the church for an issue that they'll ultimately lose.
"Having pulled back ever so slightly, the bishops should now drop this ill-conceived project altogether," Dionne closed. "It will only continue to undercut their capacity — already strained by scandal — to preach, teach and persuade."
He then suggested that they read Thomas Merton, "the Trappist monk and brilliant writer whom Pope Francis lifted up in his 2015 speech to Congress," and heed a "useful warning."
"If I insist on giving you my truth, and never stop to receive your truth in return, there can be no truth between us," Merton wrote.