It was a significant revelation from Pope Francis, coming at a time when a group of bishops in the United States are pushing to deny Communion to pro-choice politicians, including President Joe Biden.

Pope Francis weighed in on the debate about whether politicians should be denied Communion because of their stance on abortion.

“Scandal” is a word often heard used in recent months by U.S. bishops regarding the best ways to provide pastoral care and communicate authentic church teaching to pro-choice politicians who identify as Catholic.

And three other ways they can improve their Catholic voting guide before the next election.

A Pope Francis-inspired summer reading list—if your idea of a beach read is an 700-page plague novel, a dystopian story about the Antichrist or a bizarre spy story beloved by media theorists and quantum physicists!

The back-and-forth messages follow an increasingly public debate among the bishops about Catholic politicians who support keeping abortion legal and whether they should be denied access to the Eucharist.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and others are acting for the good of souls. As a last resort, they propose denying Communion to people who persistently and publicly promote the grave evil of legal abortion.

Even in the exceedingly unlikely event that every bishop miraculously agreed on how to approach the question of Communion and abortion, it still would not resolve the political question of abortion in favor of the Catholic position.

Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J., the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has sent a letter to Archbishop José H. Gomez that may lead to a reconsideration of the plan of some bishops to get the conference to approve a document regarding “the worthiness to receive Communion” of Catholic politicians.

The proposal to exclude pro-choice Catholic politicians from the Eucharist will bring tremendously destructive consequences—not because of what it says about abortion, but because of what it says about the Eucharist.