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Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest in Rome and a confidante of Francis, said that if Mr. Biden’s version of his exchange with the pope about communion was accurate, it was nevertheless “not a political statement,” as Francis’s entire goal was avoiding the politicization of the eucharist and the church, which he views as disastrous. Instead, Father Spadaro said, the pope would have been speaking as a pastor to a member of his flock. “This is pastoral to the person,” he said.

But, politically speaking, that distinction would make little difference to Mr. Biden, who has been a target of conservative American bishops, many apparently supportive of former President Donald Trump. They have argued that a Catholic politician, and especially a president, who supported abortion rights should not receive communion.

The Vatican had warned the American bishops not to pursue such a campaign, but they have pushed ahead anyway.

Since becoming president, Mr. Biden has declined to explain at length how he reconciles his Catholic beliefs with a conflicting view that abortion rights should be upheld as law. But he can now point to the highest authority in his church when challenged on his faith.

“You essentially have to take on not only Biden but also the pope,” John Carr, the co-director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, said of the American conservative bishops who campaigned to have Mr. Biden’s rights to receive the sacrament denied.