Thread by @mboorstein

NEWS: Thread on what the Vatican thinks of what the US Catholic bishops are doing re creating a new document about communion and pro-choice pols (there’s news in here if you stick with me!) 1/10

The head of the Vatican’s doctrine arm wrote to the US bishops last month saying, essentially, the goal is unity among you. Have a discussion and/or form a national policy, if it helps you be more unified. Here’s the letter itself: scribd.com/document/50739… 2/10

Here’s a story from the Vatican’s news service, headlined: “Cardinal Ladaria to US Bishops: Debate on Communion and abortion should not lead to division”
vaticannews.va/en/vatican-cit…
3/10

Yesterday, as the bishops opened their annual meeting, the president (who supports the writing of a new position paper on communion’s meaning) read a letter from a member of the Vatican’s doctrine arm that seemed to imply the congregation affirmatively wants the new document 4/10

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “looks forward” to reviewing an eventual draft statement on eucharistic coherence, read the letter to President Gomez from CDF member DiNoia. 5/10

So what was the Vatican saying? Did Gomez open the USCCB meeting with that letter to clarify that, yes, the CDF does want the document, that it has a position on it, that DiNoia’s letter was meant to clarify the disagreement that came after Ladaria’s letter? 6/10

So I asked the Vatican to clarify: Does the CDF have a position on the US bishops creating a document and/or policy on the eucharist’s meaning, including whether pro-choice Catholic pols may present themselves for it? 7/10

Is the CDF the one encouraging the discussion and possible policy? And who speaks for the CDF, the head or the member or can everyone just weigh in equally? 8/10

Here's Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni: “The CDF responded to a request from the President of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops with a letter, signed by Cardinal Ladaria, which you are aware of, and which represents the position of the Congregation on the subject." 9/10

(Bruni, cont) "The Congregation did not address the decision to draft documents or policies, except to suggest a dialogue among the bishops, fostering unity among the episcopacy." 10/10