Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican’s U.S. ambassador, just addressed the nation’s Catholic bishops at their meeting here. I’ll post on their addresses later today.

First, since this topic seems to have generated some interest, I’m posting here the full transcript of my e-mail exchange with Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver on the church and abortion politics. The questions were sent Nov. 4 and answered on Nov. 5.

What is the message you intend to bring to your fellow bishops when you discuss the practical and pastoral implications of political support for abortion during the assembly in Baltimore?

Any message to my fellow bishops should probably be shared with them first, and not the general public.

Do you expect a new document or guidelines from the USSCB about Catholic politicians who support abortion and their fitness to receive Communion? If not, what do you expect?

I’ve said for the past decade that the 1998 bishops’ pastoral letter, “Living the Gospel of Life,” is the best guide to American Catholic political responsibilities the bishops have ever produced. I think we need to take a hard look at whether the periodic “Faithful Citizenship” documents should be retired permanently. We need a new approach to conscience formation in the public square. “Faithful Citizenship” didn’t and doesn’t work because it’s been applied by different people in very different ways.

If a majority of Catholics vote for Obama, who supports legalized abortion, should the bishops be held responsible in part for this?

People have free will. Bishops will always have limited influence over the decision-making of adults. But it’s also true that Catholics have been much too optimistic about our role in American culture for the past 40 years. Catholics, including many bishops, have been naïve. We’ve been homogenized and digested by the society around us. Bishops need to take responsibility for allowing that to happen.

If Obama wins, what should the bishops say about Joe Biden? Is it a problem for the Catholic Church to have its two pro-choice politicians occupying the vice-presidency and the role of House Speaker? If so, what should be done about it?

The problems with the “pro-choice” behavior of Speaker Pelosi and now Vice President-elect Biden are serious and have not been resolved by this election. I think for the moment we can leave it at that.