The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’s June 17 vote authorizing its doctrine committee to draft a document outlining church teaching on the Holy Eucharist has been largely interpreted and reported as an effort to deny Communion to President Joe Biden and other pro-abortion rights Catholic officials.

That the public witness of Biden and other Roe v. Wade–supporting Catholic leaders was a subtext of that agenda item at the USCCB’s recent assembly is obvious enough. Several bishops mentioned Biden by name during discussions. Others have spent recent months discussing it publicly, and crafting such a document on the Eucharist was one of two recommendations made by a working group of bishops formed specifically to address issues associated with Biden’s election as the second Catholic president, including his support for abortion rights, USCCB President Jose Gomez said at the time of the inauguration.