Decision to write a teaching document on the Most Holy Eucharist

As we enter the month of August, and the resumption of classes in all of our Catholic schools in the diocese, I urge all Catholic parents to support and be involved in the Catholic education of our children. If you already have your children enrolled in one of our excellent schools, I thank you and encourage you to be involved in all aspects of their education, especially their religious instruction. If you do not have your children enrolled in one of our schools, I urge you to consider doing so. It is a sacrifice to be sure, but I can assure you it is worth it, for your children and for your entire family.

Since we did not have an issue of our newspaper in July, this is my first opportunity to give you the correct information about what we bishops decided to do at our spring meeting this last June. Unfortunately for all of us, the secular media and even some Catholic media announced that we would be voting to ban politicians who support immoral practices such as abortion and euthanasia from receiving Holy Communion. This was never even on our agenda.

What did we bishops decide to do? First, we decided to continue our efforts to help all of the Catholic faithful understand and live better the reality of the Most Holy Eucharist which we receive. We will write a teaching document on the Most Holy Eucharist having three parts: “The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Believed,” “The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Celebrated” and “The Eucharist, A Mystery to be Lived.” This document is both broad and specific in scope: it will apply to every single Catholic and it will apply the Church’s moral and social teachings to each of us in our vocations as we strive to live them faithfully every day.

This was not a “spur of the moment” decision precipitated by any single Catholic public official; it has been planned for and will be the foundation document for our multi-year Eucharistic Revival Project. Again, the bishops did not ban anyone from receiving Holy Communion nor did we make a national policy on withholding Holy Communion from politicians. To be very clear, the only person who can ban any individual from receiving Holy Communion publicly is that person’s own diocesan bishop.

Finally, the Vatican did not prohibit the bishops from moving forward with this document on the Most Holy Eucharist. It did encourage all of us bishops to discuss it and reach a consensus about the document which we did at length. We reached an overwhelming consensus to write this document for all Catholics by a 168 Yes, 55 No, and 6 Abstention vote.

We bishops will continue to prayerfully discuss this and, at our general meeting in November, we will have ample time to address this matter in person. Please pray for all of us and please be faithful to your obligation as Catholics to be properly disposed to receive Our Lord worthily in Holy Communion.