Amy Uelmen's "The Spirituality of Communion"

Several weeks ago, the “communion controversy” was the subject of several postings on the Mirror of Justice, which in turn prompted our co-blogger Rob Vischer to encourage a couple of us to further develop our thoughts into articles suitable for publication in the Catholic Lawyer later this fall. Toward this end, my University of St. Thomas colleague Chuck Reid and I prepared a piece, titled “Abortion, Bishops, Eucharist, and Politicians: A Question of Communion,” a link to which is located near my name on the Mirror of Justice.

I now want to highlight for your attention a wonderful further addition to this discussion, an essay by our co-blogger Amy Uelmen, titled “The Spirituality of Communion: A Resource for Dialogue with Catholics in Public Life.” This piece, which also will be published in the Catholic Lawyer, is also accessible by a link next to the listing of Amy’s name on the Mirror of Justice.

The communion controversy, that is, the question of whether pro-abortion politicians thereby break communion with the Church such that they should either be denied or encouraged to withhold from taking the Eucharist. A crucial element of that debate, from all perspectives, concerns the appropriate pastoral response, including dialogue between the Bishop and political leaders within the diocese. Amy’s piece thoughtfully explores how that dialogue might unfold, what it would reveal, and how it can made more fruitful. More importantly, Amy’s essay emphasizes the spiritual elements of communion and John Paul II’s call to generate a life of communion in the Mystical Body in our churches and homes. In other words, Eucharist should be appreciated as “our greatest resource on the journey” and therefore a means to nurture the efforts “to build an authentic culture of life.”

Amy’s piece is not a simplistic “I’m-Okay-You’re-Okay” approach (quite the contrary, as she appreciates the need we all feel for redemption). Nor does she mean at all to deprecate the discipline of a rigorous examination of conscience before receiving communion, including an inquiry into fidelity to the Church’s moral teaching. Rather, Amy takes things to the next step. With those fundamentals in place, how do we draw upon the “precious resource” of communion, the real presence of Christ, and thereby “move beyond and transform the polarizing and paralyzing tensions that plague not only the Church, but much of the broader political discourse.”

Greg