Not the bishop, Charleston’s seat is currently vacant. The fellow in charge is an “Administrative Something” and a Monsignor. He made a brief statement about the priest’s letter to his parishioners not fully complying with Church teaching but did not say exactly why not or how. The priest also did not back down, but clarified that he never said he would refuse Communion to anyone should they come up, but that they should not present themselves if they are in state of mortal sin. Priest also said his statement was pastoral guidance and moral clarification, not a political statement or any sort of threat, and that he thought perhaps it would be misinterpreted....and he was right.
I didn’t understand the priest’s statement to be “political” at all but clearly an expression of the Church’s position on abortion. In fact, a neat line can not always be drawn between the moral and the political. For example, the civil rights movement was motivated by a Christian understanding of ethics and morality (after all, Martin Luther King was a minister) but it by necessity had political implications. By the way, a monsignor can express the doctrine of the Church as well (sometimes better!) than a bishop.