News

Monday June 21, 2010


Retired Bishop: Biden’s Kenya Constitution Support ‘Invites Canonical Censure’

By Kathleen Gilbert

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, June 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop Rene Henry Gracida, Bishop Emeritus of the Catholic Diocese of Corpus Christi, has called for a canonical reprimand against U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. Biden, a Catholic, recently travelled to Kenya to lobby for the country’s proposed constitution, which has been strenuously opposed by pro-life groups due to its pro-abortion language.

Biden told a crowd earlier this month that the Kenya government should adopt the new constitution in order “to allow money to flow” to Kenya from other countries.

When asked about the lobbying of U.S. pro-life groups against the document, Biden told religious leaders that the Obama administration did not share the position of such groups, and said that their activites are “one of the drawbacks of democracy.”

Bishop Gracida wrote on his blog Saturday that Biden “has crossed the line as a Catholic” by supporting the document.

“Now he has taken a stand on Kenya’s proposed new constitution, a stand which is probably a violation of US law and a stand that is certainly immoral,” wrote the retired bishop. “Perhaps God, who knows whether or not Biden’s brain was permanently damaged by his brain surgery, will not judge him too harshly, but the Church, which does not have that kind of knowledge should certainly speak out and reprimand him.”

Then-senator Biden underwent two operations in 1988 to correct intracranial aneurysms.

Last month, three U.S. congressmen with legal oversight jurisdiction over foreign funds launched a probe to determine whether the Obama administration has violated federal law by using taxpayer money to promote the pro-abortion constitution.