In June, Catholic bishops in the U.S. may decide to demand President Joe Biden and other pro-abortion politicians stop taking Communion.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee will be drafting a new document to clarify its position on how to appropriately address professing Catholic politicians who defy official Church teaching on abortion, according to the Associated Press.
Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann told the outlet “Biden presents a unique problem” for Catholics in that he claims to be devout but supports abortion and its expansion.
“It can create confusion,” Naumann said. “How can he say he’s a devout Catholic, and he’s doing these things that are contrary to the Church’s teaching?”
The official Catholic teaching from the Vatican states human life “must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception” and “from the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right to every innocent being of life.”
While this issue has certainly been raised before, it is of renewed importance to many Catholics as Biden is only the second Catholic president in the country’s history and the first to very clearly espouse pro-abortion views.
Naumann described Biden’s public view of abortion as “a grave moral evil.” In February, the archbishop told Catholic World Report that Biden “should stop defining himself as a devout Catholic.”
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone told the AP there is a “growing sense of urgency” on the matter, explaining, “Abortion is not just one among many important issues. It is a direct attack on human life,” he said.