BALTIMORE — Pope Francis’ top envoy to the United States cautioned the country’s bishops on Tuesday that the church needs to listen before it teaches as they deliberated at their fall meeting on a sensitive document about Holy Communion that emerged amid debates over Catholic politicians’ support for abortion.
“It is sometimes said that there is a lot of confusion about doctrine in the church today,” Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal ambassador, told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “However, the argument continues that what is needed is clear teaching. That is true, but the Holy Father says a church that teaches must be firstly a church that listens.”
His remarks in the first public session of the gathering in Maryland came as bishops were readying to hold a vote on the document, which has been months in the making and has been surrounded by debate over the taking of communion by President Joe Biden and other politicians who support abortion rights.
Some bishops have argued that it is necessary to send a rebuke to such officials because it is a source of scandal and confusion for them to partake in the sacrament; others have called the document divisive and said that it politicizes Communion.
Pierre focused on an initiative of Francis known as the Synod on Synodality, which will involve a series of dialogues in local churches around the world over the next two years.
“As we listen to God and to one another, we learn,” he told the U.S. bishops. “The church needs this attentive listening now more than ever if she is to overcome the polarization facing this country.”
A draft of the Communion document mentions abortion only once and doesn’t identify Biden or other politicians by name, though it says at one point, “Lay people who exercise some form of public authority have a special responsibility to embody Church teaching.”
The bishops discussed the document only briefly in open session Tuesday afternoon, with minor suggestions such as making it more accessible for children. No one brought up publicly the issue of politicians and abortion.
However the bishops have had ample time to talk about it more candidly privately in executive sessions that began Monday. Amendments continued to be offered up ahead of final debate and vote scheduled for today.
The conference cannot dictate a blanket policy on denying Communion to politicians; each bishop has authority in his own diocese.
While some bishops have said they would deny the sacrament to Biden, the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, has affirmed that the president is welcome to receive the sacrament there. Biden has said that Pope Francis, too, told him in a recent private meeting to continue receiving Communion.
The document would require a two-thirds vote for approval.
