Catholics for Choice Condemns U.S. Bishops for Attacking Biden on Abortion
WASHINGTON – Catholics for Choice, which uplifts and amplifies the voices of the majority of Catholics who believe in reproductive freedom, denounced the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) today for considering an unprecedented rebuke of Joe Biden, the nation’s first pro-choice Catholic president, for his support of abortion rights. According to a report from the Associated Press, the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine is preparing a document that, if approved at the bishops’ next national meeting in June, would officially declare that Biden and other pro-choice Catholic public figures should not present themselves for Communion.
Catholics for Choice President Jamie L. Manson said:
“As Catholics, we believe that the central message of our faith can be found in Jesus’ command to ‘Feed one another.’ Because Jesus welcomed all to his table — without a question or orthodoxy test — the Eucharist is the central, unifying ritual of our church. It is what literally draws us into communion with one another. For the bishops to consider using the body of Christ as a weapon with which to divide the faithful and punish President Biden is a reprehensible betrayal of the power of the Sacraments. After four years of tacit complicity with Donald Trump — the most anti-life president in U.S. history, who daily profaned Catholic teachings on every issue from immigration to the environment to capital punishment — it is glaringly hypocritical for the bishops to suddenly use their voice to condemn President Biden and other Catholic elected officials whose consciences compel them to support abortion rights. The real tragedy here is that, on this issue especially, the bishops are out of touch with the beliefs of most lay Catholics in this country; our polling shows that a landslide majority of 66 percent oppose withholding Communion and other Sacraments from pro-choice Catholics, and majorities across party lines – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – reject this grotesque and divisive concept. The Catholic laity understand a profound truth about our faith that the bishops still don’t seem to comprehend: all are welcome and worthy at God’s table, and nothing can estrange us from God’s love.”
Catholics for Choice shapes and advances sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to a person’s well-being and respect, and affirm the capacity of all people to make moral decisions about their lives.