Wilmington:
President Joe Biden went to church Saturday in his hometown a day immediately after US Roman Catholic bishops issued a challenge to him more than his help for abortion rights.
Biden and 1st lady Jill Biden spent time at St. Joseph on the Brandywine church in Wilmington. They also visited the church graveyard exactly where the president’s 1st wife Neilia, son Beau and infant daughter Naomi are buried.
Biden, 78, is a devout Catholic who attends mass at least after a week, and he supports the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court choice affirming a woman’s correct to an abortion.
On Friday, US bishops agreed to draft a statement on the which means of holy communion which could potentially be used to deny that sacrament to the American leader.
The eucharist, also recognized as holy communion, is amongst the most sacred rituals in the Catholic Church and there have been calls from some conservative church leaders to deny the sacrament to politicians who help abortion rights.
Biden on Friday seemed to dismiss the possibility that he could be denied communion.
“That’s a private matter and I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he told reporters.
It is up to each and every neighborhood bishop to make a decision who receives communion in their diocese.
In 2019, a priest at a Catholic church in South Carolina refused holy communion to Biden simply because of his stance on abortion.
The Catholic News Service reported in May that the Vatican had warned US bishops to proceed cautiously with policies made “to address the situation of Catholics in public office who support legislation allowing abortion, euthanasia or other moral evils.”
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