In a ridiculous news article, the New York Times politicizes the decision last week by US Catholics Bishops to create a teaching document on the Holy Eucharist that will address whether politicians who refuse to follow the teachings of the church, especially with regard to the issue of abortion, should be receiving Holy Communion:
Pope Francis and President Biden, both liberals, are the two most high-profile Roman Catholics in the world. But in the U.S., a conservative movement determines how the church asserts its power. https://t.co/McDDle361v
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 21, 2021
The New York Times is taking this principled decision by the bishops and making it look like it’s just a political attack against Biden:
Pope Francis and President Biden, both liberals, are the two most high-profile Roman Catholics in the world.
But in the United States, neither of these men is determining the direction of the Catholic Church. It is now a conservative movement that decides how the Catholic Church asserts its power in America.That reality was unmistakably declared last week, when the country’s bishops voted overwhelmingly to draft guidelines for the Eucharist, advancing a conservative push to deny Mr. Biden communion over his support for abortion rights.
“There is a special obligation of those who are in leadership because of their public visibility,” Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, who heads the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana, said after the vote.
It was the most dramatic example of the conservative Catholic movement’s reach since Mr. Biden was elected. But the contingent had been gaining strength throughout the Trump era, clashing with the Vatican, wresting influence away from Pope Francis’ top representatives in the United States and further polarizing the Catholic faithful in the process. And now, American Catholics are facing an internal war over one of the church’s most sacred rituals, the Eucharist, which represents the body and blood of Christ.
Leading U.S. allies of Pope Francis, including Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark and Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, sided with the Vatican’s warning against proceeding with the eucharistic document, but they were ultimately drowned out. The measure passed with a vote of 73 percent who approved it compared with 24 percent who opposed it.
That 73 percent represents emerging conservative momentum, at odds with Pope Francis’ broader range of priorities on issues like immigration, poverty and climate change, not only among bishops but in parishes across the country. Although the church has a hierarchical structure, bishops have significant autonomy in their own dioceses. Among the conservative movement’s leaders: Bishop Rhoades, who chairs the bishops’ committee on doctrine.
The New York Times is trying their best to stoke a political war in the church over this issue, when it has nothing to do with politics. As I explained last week, this issue has almost everything to do with scandal, which politicians like Biden and Pelosi are creating in the church by openly defying the Church’s teaching on abortion while maintaining that they are faithful Catholics. They are creating confusion and likely leading Catholics astray by supporting these abortion policies in defiance of the Church, especially those who don’t have a solid foundation.
But this is not just about scandal. This also has to do with the souls of these so-called faithful Catholic politicians, and the harm it brings to their souls when they partake of Holy Communion while being in the state of mortal sin. What kind of shepherds would these Bishops be if they simply allowed people to heap damnation upon their souls without speaking up, without trying to stop them? No, it’s their responsibility to try and protect the faithful and guide them back to a place of repentance, so that they can participate in Holy Communion properly and thus please Jesus with their lives.
As I suggested, the vote last week to create this document to properly instruct the faithful was a principled decision by these Bishops and one that is very much needed. But the liberal New York Times wants to create division with this and is doing their darndest to bring that about, and it’s disgusting.