With their recent decision to draft a pastoral document on the Eucharist, the U.S. bishops “did not vote on a national policy to deny holy Communion to politicians who reject church teaching, especially regarding abortion,” Archbishop William E. Lori said in a June 22 letter to Catholics of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
“Rather, in light of the decline in belief and participation in the Eucharist, the bishops voted to permit their Committee on Doctrine to begin drafting a pastoral document on the Eucharist,” Archbishop Lori said. “As (Los Angeles) Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, recently stated, ‘…our desire is to deepen our people’s awareness of this great mystery of faith, and to awaken their amazement at this divine gift, in which we have communion with the living God. That is our pastoral purpose in writing this document.’”
Archbishop Lori said the document will serve as a “foundation” for the bishops’ multi-year Eucharistic Revival Project, what he described as “a major national effort to reignite Eucharistic faith in our country.”
“It is not disciplinary in nature, nor is it targeted at any one person or class of persons,” Archbishop Lori said. “The document is outlined to address the church’s teachings on personal conscience for every Catholic, including bishops, to live in accordance with the truth, goodness and beauty of the Eucharist we celebrate.”
During their virtual spring general assembly June 16-18, the bishops approved in a 168-55 vote, with six abstentions, the drafting of this document. The vote followed a lengthy debate June 17 and the results were announced the following day.
The USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine will draft it and present the document for discussion when the bishops reconvene in person in November for their fall general assembly.
The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has asked the nation’s Catholics to pray for him and his brother bishops “as we continue our dialogues and reflections” in the process of drafting a document on the “meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the church.”
“I pray that this will be a time for all of us in the church to reflect on our own faith and readiness to receive our Lord in the holy Eucharist,” Archbishop Gomez said in a statement released late June 21.
“The Eucharist is the heart of the church and the heart of our lives as Catholics,” he said. “In the holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ himself draws near to each one of us personally and gathers us together as one family of God and one body of Christ.”
Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairman of the doctrine committee and a former rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, presented a proposed document outline to the bishops June 17. It would include three parts, subtitled “The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Believed,” “The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Celebrated” and “The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Lived.”
As proposed, each part includes three topics that would be addressed including, respectively, the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in Communion; unity, beauty and identity as the “fount and apex of the whole Christian life”; and moral transformation, eucharistic consistency and missionary discipleship.
Bishop Rhoades said this was developed in light of the decline in Catholics’ belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist as well as the long absences from regular Mass attendance, which may have led to people placing less significance on the Eucharist in their lives.
Archbishop Lori encouraged those who have questions on the pastoral document to see a Q&A posted on the archdiocesan website.
Catholic News Service contributed to this report.
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