Catholic Bishops Debate Holy Communion Rules That Could Affect Biden

President Biden's ability to receive communion is back in the headlines.

Kicking off a conference in Baltimore Monday, U.S. bishops are expected to vote this week on a document clarifying the meaning of Holy Communion, a sacrament central to the Catholic faith.

The issue has divided the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pitting more conservative Catholics against those who support the president's views.

While some denounce Biden's support for abortion, the conference will likely avoid direct criticism of the president's pro-choice position. 

The highest-profile agenda item is a proposed "teaching document" about Holy Communion. After months of work on it by the Conference's Committee on Doctrine, a heated debate continues among the faithful over whether President Biden and other Catholic politicians supporting abortion rights should receive the sacrament.

"The American people have given him a lot of authority and power. But what power he doesn't have is to define what it means to be Catholic," said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas.

While some bishops have made it clear that they would deny communion to Biden, there is no national policy. The document is not expected to break new ground either, mentioning abortion only once without naming Biden or anyone else. 

The friction between U.S. bishops and Catholic politicians who support abortion rights is decades old. It intensified in 2004 when John Kerry, a Catholic, won the Democratic presidential nomination.

Last month, after a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Biden said the subject of abortion was not raised but said he had the pontiff's support. 

While details are worked out in the document, the incoming chairman of the bishops' Committee on Pro-life Activities says he hopes it will ease the divide between those who favored an explicit rebuke of the president and those who opposed it.

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