Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. The presidency of JOE BIDEN continues to cause schisms in the Catholic church. Cincinnati Archbishop DENNIS SCHNURR complained Tuesday that he wasn’t contacted about Biden’s visit to a local Catholic university, Mount St. Joseph, where the president is scheduled to hold a CNN town hall Wednesday night, and said he wouldn’t have approved it. The university isn’t under his jurisdiction, but he felt like making his opposition known. Schurr’s public reproach comes a month after Catholic bishops in the United States voted to move forward on drafting guidance that could ban politicians and other public figures who, like Biden, support a woman’s right to obtain an abortion, from receiving communion at Mass. The vote, pushed by conservative U.S. bishops, was opposed by the Vatican. And even if it’s finalized, it would still be up to local bishops to decide whether or not to offer communion to people in their diocese. Biden, a devout Catholic who regularly attends church services and carries rosary beads, is still receiving a warm reception — and communion — at the two main parishes he attends: Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown and St. Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, his hometown. “He’s been here six times since the inauguration,” Fr. KEVIN GILLESPIE of Holy Trinity told West Wing Playbook. “The first time I said, ‘You’re welcome here at any time.’ He thanked me for that. But he is really private about that [his faith].” Gillespie’s church is following the lead of the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who has spoken out against the communion ban. Parishioners at Biden’s D.C. church have also spoken out in opposition to it, declaring in a statement from the Parish Council that, “The great gift of the Holy Eucharist is too sacred to be made a political issue.” “There was applause when a parishioner, a representative of the parish council, made that statement, saying, ‘This is what we’re saying, all are welcome,’” Gillespie said. Holy Trinity is no stranger to politics or politicians themselves. Over the course of its 234-year history, visitors and parishioners have included President ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President JOHN F. KENNEDY and first lady JACKIE KENNEDY and most recently, Secretary of State TONY BLINKEN, who arrived with his wife for a baptism about an hour after the president left a recent Mass, Gillespie said. “It’s in our tradition to welcome leaders on both sides of the aisle,” he said. Gillespie said Biden knows he’s supported by his archbishops, both in Delaware and in D.C. — despite differing opinions. “But both Archbishop Gregory and I have said, ‘we don’t agree with everything he’s saying about abortion, but we’re not being asked to be politicians on this,’” Gillespie said. “Pastorally, we are welcoming to the Eucharist, even though we may disagree with him on how far he’s taken the abortion issue or the pro-life issue. At the same time, this is not the context to do it, namely to weaponize the eucharist.” Asked about the bishops’ debate on communion last month, Psaki told reporters the president’s faith is personal and private. “He goes to church, as you know, nearly every weekend. He even went when we went on our overseas trip, but it’s personal to him. He doesn’t see it through a personal prism, and we’re not going to comment otherwise on the inner workings of the Catholic church.” Biden told PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff that he’s only been denied communion once over his position on abortion — by a priest in South Carolina in 2019. “That’s a private matter. I’m not going to talk about that. But it’s the only time it’s ever happened,” he said in the 2019 interview. JIM MANLEY, who served as a top staffer to another powerful Catholic liberal, the late Sen. TED KENNEDY (D-Mass.), told West Wing Playbook he sees similarities in the way his old boss and the current president have handled the criticism and politicization of their faiths. Both Biden and Kennedy “are really reluctant to talk about their faith, which is very important to them and very personal,” Manley said. “Sen. Kennedy at the time was one of the most famous Catholics in the world, but every once in a while, he had to deal with Catholic officials that were trying to politicize his love for his faith.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you ELIZABETH HART? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. | 
