The official organs of conservative Catholic opinion have engaged in propaganda the past couple of days that would make the Russian paper Pravda proud. The aim was to convince their readers that the letter from Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, did not say what it plainly said: Slow down and rethink this reckless rush to adopt a national policy barring U.S. President Joe Biden from Communion, that our bishops' conference is not the only conference in the world, and that abortion is not the only issue with claims on the conscience of a conscientious Catholic. Instead, denial was the order of the day.
The National Catholic Register ran a story from the Catholic News Agency, both owned by EWTN, which had a curious headline: "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Highlights Doctrinal Note on Catholics in Politics in Letter to US Bishops on Eucharistic Coherence."
Well, yes, the Ladaria letter did highlight the 2002 doctrinal note, but to what end? The headline writer at the Spanish website Religion Digital was able to figure it out: "El Vaticano frena los intentos de los obispos norteamericanos por excomulgar a Biden," that is, "The Vatican brakes the aim of those North American bishops who want to excommunicate Biden." And the Catholic News Service, the official news service of the U.S. bishops, ran an excellent story by Cindy Wooden headlined: "Cardinal Ladaria cautions US bishops on politicians and Communion."
Not until the eighth paragraph does the Register/CNA story get to the heart of the matter, that Ladaria was reminding Gomez that during the 2019-2020 ad limina visits, the Congregation had advised proceeding with a national policy only if the effort would build unity among the bishops. And, seeing as the opposite appeared more likely, Ladaria set forth a series of hurdles — any one of which is enough to bring the crusade to deny Biden Communion to an end.
EWTN's "Nightly News" program did not amend its broadcast on the day the story broke but ran what by then seemed an ironic, and sad, interview with San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone about his pastoral letter on the subject. The second night, the show referenced the Ladaria letter but directed viewers to the Register for more detailed information. In short, they punted.
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