The Pillar site has obtained the full text of a draft statement on “Eucharistic Coherence,” to be discussed at the US bishops’ meeting this month. Pillar reports that “the draft includes no specific mention of high-profile Catholic politicians in favor of abortion.”

The draft document (available on the Pillar site) cites an earlier compromise statement from the US bishops’ conference, issued in 2006, which says that if someone “were knowingly and obstinately to repudiate [the Church’s] definitive teaching on moral issues,” that person “should refrain” from receiving Communion. But the draft does not apply that statement to the situation of Catholic politicians who claim to be “personally opposed” to abortion while promoting the practice, nor does it address the challenge posed by Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law, which requires Eucharistic ministers to withhold Communion from those who “obstinately persist in manifest grave sin.”