The US Bishops’ Conference is to issue a teaching document “on the beauty and power of the Eucharist”. 

It is overdue. In 2019, a Pew survey suggested that barely a third of US Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This is a scandal, evidence of a failure of grassroots catechisis, of  Catholic schools and of the US bishops themselves.

The document is however not attracting attention because it will reassert fundamental Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist, but because of a widespread understanding that it is a means for the bishops to make clear that President Biden and other Democrats should not receive Communion because of their support for abortion. This approach is endorsed eloquently in an article in this issue by Fr Gerald Murray.