In rift with Biden, a dramatic show of force by a conservative Catholic movement

Pope Francis and President Joe Biden, both liberals, are the two most high-profile Roman Catholics in the world.

But in the United States, neither of these men is determining the direction of the Catholic Church. It is now a conservative movement that decides how the Catholic Church asserts its power in America.

That reality was unmistakably declared last week, when the country’s bishops voted overwhelmingly to draft guidelines for the Eucharist, advancing a conservative push to deny Biden Communion over his support for abortion rights.

“There is a special obligation of those who are in leadership because of their public visibility,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who heads the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana, said after the vote.

It was the most dramatic example of the conservative Catholic movement’s reach since Biden was elected. Now, American Catholics are facing an internal war over one of the church’s most sacred rituals, the Holy Eucharist, which represents the body and blood of Christ.

Leading U.S. allies of the pope, including Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, N.J., and Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., sided with the Vatican’s warning against proceeding with the eucharistic document, but they were ultimately drowned out. The measure passed with a vote of 73% who approved it compared with 24% who opposed it.

That 73% represents emerging conservative momentum, at odds with the pope's broader range of priorities on issues such as immigration, poverty and climate change, not only among bishops but in parishes across the country. Although the church has a hierarchical structure, bishops have significant autonomy in their own dioceses.

The rightward shift comes as conservative movements are rising in Christianity, pushing back against increasing secularism and the overall decline of Christianity, both Protestant and Catholic. The sex abuse crisis has also pushed many parishioners away from the church.

White Catholics are increasingly Republican: About 6 in 10 registered white Catholic voters are now Republican, compared with 4 in 10 in 2008, according to the Pew Research Center. By contrast, about two-thirds of Hispanic Catholic voters have remained Democrats over the past decade.

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