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Eugene

(62,626 posts)
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 05:49 AM Jun 2021

'Unique problem': Catholic bishops split over Biden's support for abortion rights

Source: The Guardian

‘Unique problem’: Catholic bishops split over Biden’s support for abortion rights

US bishops to debate whether the president should be denied communion over his pro-choice stance

Harriet Sherwood religion correspondent
@harrietsherwood
Sat 12 Jun 2021 08.00 BST

At some point this weekend, Joe Biden will take his place in a line of people approaching the altar of a Catholic church to receive communion.

The US president, a devout Catholic whose speeches regularly include biblical references and who carries a rosary that belonged to his late son, attends Mass every weekend – in Washington, his home town of Wilmington in Delaware, or wherever he happens to be traveling. If the traditional Sunday morning Eucharist service is not possible because of his schedule, he will receive the sacrament on Saturday evening as permitted by the Roman Catholic church.

“It’s really an encounter with God,” Father Kevin Gillespie of Holy Trinity in Washington, the church Biden usually attends in the capital, told the Atlantic earlier this year. For Biden, this “sacred and intimate moment” is a “gift that enhances his faith”, and “we most certainly encourage him to improve his intimacy with God through the Eucharist”.

But not everybody in the Catholic church in America is quite so keen on Biden receiving communion. Next week, a national online meeting of US bishops will discuss whether the president and other high-profile political figures should be denied the sacraments because of his stance on abortion rights.

“How can he say he’s a devout Catholic and he’s doing these things that are contrary to the church’s teaching?” archbishop Joseph Naumann, chair of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) committee on pro-life activities, asked last month. Biden’s position was a “grave moral evil” which presents a “unique problem” for the church, Naumann said.

-snip-


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/12/biden-support-abortion-rights-catholic-bishops-split
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OnDoutside

(20,649 posts)
1. Hypocrites say what ?
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 06:14 AM
Jun 2021

You might think they're a dying breed but most of the new intake of clergy are likely to be hard right, my way or the highway types. And that of course will turn more Catholics off.

DUgosh

(3,107 posts)
2. Hasn't the Vatican has already addressed this
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 06:31 AM
Jun 2021

And informed the Bishops that they must be all in agreement ?

Eugene

(62,626 posts)
6. The Vatican has already warned them.
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 07:03 AM
Jun 2021
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1218323967

Vatican warns US bishops over get-tough Communion proposals

Even then, Ladaria advised, the bishops should seek unanimous support within their ranks for any national policy, lest it become “a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church in the United States.”


https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-joe-biden-religion-058bdc0c37aa5ee780e18f4666a999ee

HUAJIAO

(2,567 posts)
3. The Catholic 'Church" has been on of the most ignorant, political, destructive forces
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 06:47 AM
Jun 2021

on the planet forever...



kacekwl

(7,456 posts)
4. The unique problem is why
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 06:48 AM
Jun 2021

anyone who is a practicing Christian would even bother with this group of practicing assholes. I read somewhere that it's not for you to judge. Direct your outrage inward and address your problems 1st. Jesus loves everyone correct ?

Response to Eugene (Original post)

Girard442

(6,387 posts)
7. Funny, I don't see the bishops agonizing over the 400,000 (est) COVID deaths...
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 07:22 AM
Jun 2021

...attributable to the malfeasance of Donald Trump.

It was once said,"How many people will have to die for them to get their pro-life judges?"

Now we know.

keithbvadu2

(39,924 posts)
8. If this is so important to the faith, the Pope should decide as he is infallible.
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 08:20 AM
Jun 2021

If this is so important to the faith, the Pope should decide as he is infallible.

If the Vatican only gives advice, it is a minor/local issue.

keithbvadu2

(39,924 posts)
9. Pedophile priests were not denied communion.
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 08:22 AM
Jun 2021

Pedophile priests were not denied communion.

The church protected them for many decades.

ShazamIam

(2,688 posts)
10. I hope we start taxing churches that have injected themselves into political and government
Sat Jun 12, 2021, 10:10 AM
Jun 2021

to push religious beliefs.

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