Social media is all aflutter with the shocking, Earth-shattering news that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has voted to draft a document!  Surely the end times are near.

Christine Rousselle reports for the Catholic News Agency:

Meeting virtually for their annual spring general assembly, the U.S. bishops voted on Thursday to begin drafting “a formal statement on the meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.” The vote took place after extensive and, at times, spirited debate on Wednesday and Thursday, with some bishops opposing the move to begin drafting the document. …

The bishops had extensive debate before voting to authorize the drafting of a teaching document on the Eucharist. A proposed outline of the document, provided by the doctrine committee, included the Church’s teachings on the “Real Presence” of Christ in the Eucharist, Sunday as a holy day, the Eucharist as sacrifice, and worthiness to receive Communion.

The last point is the controversial one, because it begins to address a basic question from which many Church authorities have tended to shy away:  Are public figures (notably politicians) who openly flout the teachings of the Church while claiming to be full members and are therefore causing scandal over the Church’s teachings, leading others astray, truly in communion with the Church and therefore eligible to receive the Eucharist?

In outrage, Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu of California, who identifies as a Catholic, took to Twitter to list five issues on which his beliefs are not in keeping with the teachings of the Church and declared: “Next time I go to Church, I dare you to deny me Communion.”  Of all the lines in the tweet, the dare is the most clear sign that Lieu has excommunicated himself from the Church and should not receive the Eucharist.

One struggles to think of a more succinct proof that a person has an attitude of defiance toward a Church that believes itself directly authorized by God.  One who claims to believe in that Church and who makes such a statement is manifestly declaring defiance of God and has therefore separated himself from salvation.  To a believer, that is a tragic and terrifying action, which shows that Lieu is, in fact, not a believer.

Meanwhile, non-Catholic progressive Rhode Island journalist Scott MacKay (formerly of the Providence Journal and The Public’s Radio) responded to the USCCB’s vote by simply tweeting: “Sick.”

Think about that.  Drafting a document to affirm that an organization’s position on an issue of public concern has not changed and that, in effect, membership in good standing can be affected by rejection of its teachings?  Sick.  Slaughtering an infant in his or her mother’s womb up to the point of birth for any reason at all?  Not sick.

A fallen world, indeed.

Featured image, The Preaching of the Antichrist, by Luca Signorelli.