The Vatican News service has posted an interview with retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, giving prominent coverage to the cardinal’s view that a document on “Eucharistic coherence,” which will be discussed at this week’s meeting of the American hierarchy, is “totally unnecessary.”

Invoking the familiar argument about separation of Church and state, Cardinal Mahony argues that it is “almost impossible” for a Catholic politician to make decisions consistently based on Church doctrine. He praises a June statement issued by 60 Democratic representatives, saying that when he read it, “I said, ‘This is us! This is the Church!’” In that statement the lawmakers had objected to “the weaponization of the Eucharist to Democratic lawmakers for their support of a woman’s safe and legal access to abortion.”

Cardinal Mahony’s arguments are not original or surprising. But it is noteworthy that the Vatican’s official service chose to call attention to these views—expressed by a prelate who resigned under pressure ten years ago—on the even of the US bishops’ debate.