After months of speculation that the document could offer guidance to empower individual bishops to deny Communion to pro-choice politicians, the document only obliquely references Catholics in public life.

On this deep dive episode of “Inside the Vatican,” producer Maggi Van Dorn and host Colleen Dulle dig into the history of the U.S. bishops’ engagement with political issues and give some background on today’s “Communion wars.”

Gloria Purvis speaks with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco about some of the most contested issues in the Catholic Church today.

For the last 17 years, Senator Durbin has been unable to receive Communion in his home diocese in Springfield, Ill.

The proposed Build Back Better Act has much-needed provisions “uplifting the common good,” but unacceptably “expands taxpayer funding of abortion,” the chairmen of six U.S.C.C.B. committees said.

A draft document about the Eucharist being prepared by a group of U.S. bishops makes only oblique references to Catholic politicians who disagree with church teaching.