VATICAN CITY — The incoming chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities hopes his brother bishops will approve a statement on the Eucharist that helps Catholics understand the gift that it is and that invites them back to activity in the Church life.
“I think it would be a beautiful thing if, in November, we were to close ranks and say, ‘We are pastors. We love our people. We want to make this an inviting church and we want to gather people around the altar of the Lord,’” Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore told Catholic News Service.
In discussing and voting on a document on the Eucharist during their meeting Nov. 15-18, he said, the tone should be pastoral, “not compromising our teaching, not denying that it is possible to exclude oneself from the table of the Lord,” but laying the foundation for the bishops’ multiyear project of helping Catholics better understand, appreciate and celebrate the sacrament.
Some bishops want the statement to specifically address the question of Catholic politicians, such as President Joe Biden, who support legalized abortion or other laws at odds with Church teaching. Biden is scheduled to meet the pope Oct. 29.
Given their roles, “it would be surprising if the pope and the president didn’t meet,” the archbishop said Oct. 23. “It’s clear that the pope does not agree with the president about abortion. He’s made that exceptionally clear.”
“I don’t think that this meeting signals any kind of weakness on the pope’s part on the life issues,” he said, “but I think there will also be some areas of agreement, and those areas of agreement are broadly shared by the American bishops. It doesn’t mean we’re in one camp or the other, it just means that these are issues that are guided by our social teaching,” particularly on the environment in the runup to the U.N. climate conference
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