Vatican cardinal: each bishop--not conference--decides on denial of Communion (RNS)

The US bishops’ conference is expected to vote in June on a statement regarding the reception of Communion by prominent Catholics who reject Church teachings on the dignity of human life. But Cardinal Michael Czerny, the undersecretary of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, remarked that as a matter of canon law, each diocesan bishop has the authority to make his own determination on that question. “It’s not up to the bishops in general to make these decisions; it’s up to the bishop of the person,” he said. While several American prelates have debated the issue in public this year, Cardinal Czerny is the only senior Vatican official who has addressed the question directly.