Wuerl Elected to Lead Panel Guarding Catholic Church Doctrine

Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl was elected chairman of the powerful Committee on Doctrine by members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their meeting in Baltimore this week.

The Committee on Doctrine is a guardian of church canon in the United States, promoting the pope's teachings, clarifying church positions and studying the writings of Catholic theologians to determine whether they are adhering to the faith.

In the past, it has weighed in on some of the most sensitive and controversial areas of Catholic thought -- stem-cell research, contraception, same-sex marriage and abortion.

The current committee chairman, Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., was a point person when the group responded last summer to remarks about the church's historical position on abortion by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Pelosi roused the bishops' ire when she claimed in an interview -- inaccurately, they said -- that the question of when life begins has been a subject of controversy in the church over the centuries.

In 2007, the committee investigated the writings of the Rev. Peter Phan, a Georgetown University theology professor, and accused him of "significant ambiguity" about Catholic teaching regarding Jesus Christ in his 2004 book "Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue." The committee said the book challenged the idea of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church as the absolute and unique means of salvation.

Wuerl, a committee member for 11 of his 22 years as a bishop, defeated Bishop Jerome Listecki of LaCrosse, Wis., 140-85. Lori, a former auxiliary bishop of Washington, will end his three-year term next November, when Wuerl will take over.

Wuerl said the main tasks for the committee are reviewing bishop conference publications on ethical and religious directives for religious hospitals, and material from a committee focused on strengthening marriage.

"Anything that touches on the Catholic faith and its teachings, this committee is asked to take a look at it," he said.

Communion Denial

The issue of denying Communion to pro-choice politicians continues to roil the bishops. At a public discussion of a proposed statement on abortion at the bishops' meeting, Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., criticized his peers for their "reticence to speak to Catholic politicians who are not just reluctant, but stridently anti-life." He took aim at Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who is Catholic and was raised in Scranton.

"I can't have the vice president-elect coming to Scranton saying he learned his values there, when those values are utterly against what the church teaches," Martino said.

Wuerl, who will be Biden's bishop when he becomes a full-time District resident, disagrees. He maintains that it is an individual Catholic's responsibility to follow his or her conscience, based on his or her faith, when deciding whether to accept Communion. "You have to make that decision in your own heart," he said.

"I never said I'd refuse Communion to anyone," he said. "I've never thought that was the way to proceed."