WASHINGTON (CNS)—A page on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops answers a series of questions regarding the bishops’ vote to approve drafting a document on the Eucharist during their spring general assembly June 16-18. 

 

Presented in a question-and-answer format, the page reviews four questions including why the document is being developed and whether the bishops voted to ban elected officials from receiving holy Communion. 

 

The webpage is dated June 21, three days after the bishops announced the vote to allow the Committee on Doctrine to draft the document and present it for discussion when the bishops reconvene in person in November. 

 

The U.S. bishops approved advancing a plan to draft a document to examine the “meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the church” following a lengthy debate during their assembly, held virtually due to the pandemic. 

 

The action passed with 168 votes in favor and 55 votes against it. There were six abstentions. 

 

Chieko Noguchi, USCCB director of public affairs, told CNS in an email June 24 that the question-and-answer online document was developed by her office in collaboration with Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., doctrine committee chairman, and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Va., chairman of the Committee on Communications.

 

“We were hearing from people who seemed to misunderstand the vote, so it was created and then shared with all bishops with the approval of the conference president” Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Noguchi wrote.