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Welcome to Thursday. As the U.S. bishops' conference is set to debate whether to deny the Eucharist to Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, ordinary Catholics are considering what the sacrament does for them. Sr. Joan Chittister says that as long as we silently accept Donald Trump's big lie and do nothing to expose it, he will see that the people he lied to about it keep voting the lie's carriers into office. Calls to deny Communion to Biden for abortion views prompt Catholic soul-searchingA Pew Research Center survey this year found that among U.S. Catholic adults, 67% say President Joe Biden should be allowed to receive Communion, while 29% say he shouldn't. Some divisions emerge among Catholics who identify with the Republican Party, with a slim majority (55%) saying Biden's abortion stance should disqualify him from receiving Communion, compared with just 11% who identify with the Democratic Party who say so. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is set to discuss Communion at its annual meeting in June, following an unusual declaration after the November presidential election that the bishops would form a working group chaired by Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron to "navigate" the "difficult and complex situation." Jennifer Hughes, a religion historian at University of California Riverside, said the current debate reflects a rift "between your average Catholic and some of our very conservative Catholic leaders." Hughes said American Catholicism has historically been more inclusive and progressive than the current leadership reflects. In practice, she said, the decision about when to receive or refrain from Communion is usually left up to individual lay Catholics. "They understand they may not be in compliance with all things, but they'll still receive (Communion) in order ... to try to enter into a relationship with God," she said. You can read more of the story here. Reprise: "So Banning Guns Won't Prevent Gun Violence But Banning Abortion Prevents Abortion"Compendium Of "Pax-Barbaria" Posts About Abortion, And The Indispensable Distinction Between "Pro-Life" And "Pro-Birth""Prohibition And Abortion" "5 Pro Life Votes: The Supremes can Overturn Roe Now" "How Did Jesus Come To Love Guns, And Hate Sex?" More background:
Liz Cheney challenges us: With whom shall we stand?In her latest column, Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister says that political morality is upside down, citing the Republicans' decision to vote Liz Cheney out of leadership for admitting that President Joe Biden won the election, not Donald Trump. "Eighty percent of Republicans, the polls say, agree with Cheney's purge for telling that truth," Chittister writes. "So it's their lie now; not simply Trump's. It belongs to the people who are denying us the integrity we're looking for, and because of whom we know without a doubt now that we can't expect any integrity from them either." Chittister says that it is one thing to have members of Congress disagree on which form of a policy will best solve a given problem. "But to remove a national figure from leadership because they tell the truth simply tells us the truth we need to know about them: they will tell any lie necessary in order to get power and keep it under any circumstances," she adds. "Regardless of what happens to the country because they lie." You can read more of Chittister's column here. More headlines
Final thoughtsWe will see you at 3 p.m. Central today as NCR opinion editor Olga Segura interviews Ike Ndolo, a Nigerian American Catholic musician and member of the collective "Village Lights." You can find the conversation on Facebook or on YouTube. If you are interested in more culture coverage from NCR, sign up for Segura's weekly newsletter. Until Friday,
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Stephanie Yeagle
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