The Catholic bishops in the US voted overwhelmingly to approve a proposal from their doctrinal committee to draft a document on Eucharistic coherence.

This is the idea that a person’s beliefs and behaviour should be consistent with core teachings on faith and morals.

Its been prompted in part by President Joe Biden taking communion at mass despite his public support for abortion.

Church law says those who ‘publicly’ and ‘obstinately’ persist in ‘grave’ sin should be denied communion, though in practice this discipline is rarely applied.

168 bishops voted in favour of the proposal, 55 voted against it, and there were six abstentions.

Now that the proposal has been approved, the doctrinal committee will draft the document for a vote at the next meeting in November, where it will need a two-thirds majority vote for approval.