At the risk of division within the American Catholic Church, the bishops targeted a Catholic president who supported abortion rights.

A split Roman Catholic bishops conference in the United States announced on Friday that they will draft a statement on the sacrament, which may warn Catholic politicians, including President Joe Biden, that they support Right to abortion.

On June 17th, after a two-hour debate at the virtual assembly of the American Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the bishops voted 168-55 to draft a teaching document on the Eucharist, which is part of the Roman Catholic faith. Of a sacred sacrament. Reiterate the merits of church doctrine against spreading the possibility of partisanship.

This week’s debate exposed some of the cultural and political differences that have rocked the church in the past few years.According to a Gallup poll released in March, the membership of the Catholic Church in the United States has fallen by nearly 20% in the past 20 years because Sexual abuse Scandal involved Predatory priest It has been exposed that members are increasingly divided on social issues.

Biden is a lifelong pious Roman Catholic. He supports the ability of American women to end unintended pregnancies. This is the core policy stance of the U.S. Democratic Party he now leads. However, many American Catholics oppose abortion and believe that the fetus has the right to life on religious grounds.

The bishops who were in favor of drafting the document insisted that no politician would be named, but the topic of Biden’s social outlook recurred in the discussion.Biden is the second Catholic to serve as President of the United States, and he supports Same-sex marriage And abortion rights, they say these views run counter to church teachings.

At Friday’s White House event, Biden refused to answer reporters’ questions about the bishop’s decision. “This is a private matter, and I don’t think it will happen,” Biden said.

Some bishops who advocated the drafting of the document believe that, given the inconsistency of beliefs and behaviors of public officials such as Biden, they are obliged to clarify the church’s doctrine to all Catholics.

Donald Hying, the bishop of Madison, Wisconsin, said: “I talk to Catholics almost every day… They have a Catholic who claims to be devout to us, but they have advanced the most radical in our history. The fact that the abortion agenda is perplexed.” Supported the drafting of the document.

Opponents said they were worried that the writing of the document might cause further partisanship within the church, and the bishops should spend more time discussing this issue before moving on.

According to the Catholic News Agency, the Vatican Cardinal Luis Ladaria wrote the meeting in May, urging caution against politicians’ views on abortion and the communion debate, saying it could become a “source of discord” .

Robert McIlroy, the bishop of San Diego, opposed the drafting of the document, saying that the move would go against the bishop’s goal of uniting Catholics through the communion.

“The Eucharist… will inevitably become a tool for the vicious partisanship that plagues our country. It is impossible to prevent the weaponization of the Eucharist in a partisan struggle,” he said.

The exit polls for the 2020 presidential election show that the Catholic vote between Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump is almost split.

Francis Congratulations to Biden In a phone call after his election, even some Catholic bishops refused to recognize Biden as president because he supported abortion rights.

It is now expected that the Doctrinal Committee of the conference will draft the document before the November conference, at which time the bishop will review the revised draft.

In 2004, the conference issued a statement stating that individual bishops can decide whether to refuse to receive the Eucharist from Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.