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Fr. Michael OrsiPatrick Novecosky

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January 26, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – A U.S. priest is warning Catholics that even though some Catholic shepherds along with the mainstream media are trying to portray President Biden as a faithful Catholic who prays and attends Mass, the truth is that someone who champions the murder of children in the womb is not, and never can be, a “devout Catholic.”

Biden “is not a devout Catholic,” said Father Michael Orsi, a priest of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey who currently serves as parochial vicar at St. Agnes Parish in Naples, Florida, in a homily on Sunday. “Any bishop or cardinal or priest who tries to buy into that lie, who gives truth to that lie, is a wolf in shepherd's clothing.”

Orsi pointed out how quickly Biden, in his first days of office, began to implement his campaign promises of “providing unlimited abortion.” The priest noted how Biden rejoined the World Health Organization, part of the United Nations, what he called one of the “biggest” backers of international abortion. The priest highlighted Biden’s plan to reverse the “Mexico City policy,” which blocks federal funds from going to nongovernmental organizations that provide abortion in developing countries.

He also noted how Democrats have already pledged to eliminate this year the pro-life Hyde Amendment that prohibits federal funds from going to pay for abortions in programs like Medicaid. The priest also pointed out Biden’s pledge on the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe v. Wade to make abortion available to “everyone” by “codifying” the ruling across the country so as to make null and void laws in states that currently restrict abortion access.

Orsi praised a letter from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), released amid some ecclesial drama on Biden’s inauguration day, warning that Biden’s pledge to pursue anti-life and anti-family policies would advance “moral evils” in the areas of “abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.” Archbishop José Gomez, the USCCB president, stressed in the Jan. 20 letter that abortion would remain the “preeminent priority” for American bishops during the Biden administration.

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is the murder of innocent human beings and is contrary to the fifth commandment. “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Fr. Orsi criticized Catholic leaders in the United States, indirectly referring to Cardinal Blase Cupich, who “thought that the letter should not be published and appealed to the Vatican for fear that if it were to be published, it might inhibit some of the further negotiations that the Vatican wanted to have with the Biden administration.”

The priest explained why there is such a push from some Catholic leaders along with mainstream media to portray Biden as a faithful Catholic.

“The president touts himself being a devout Catholic, and even claims to have a picture of Pope Francis on his desk. And, of course, the media just loves it. Why? Because then they too can promote the narrative: ‘Devout Catholic – if he says (abortion is) good, it must be good … even the Catholic Church agrees.’”

Orsi lamented that many Catholic leaders, at home and abroad, are promoting the “lie” that Biden is faithfully Catholic.

“Why, why are the bishops, some of the bishops, some of the cardinals, some of those in the Vatican, so willing to allow this lie to be perpetrated on the American people, and literally on the people of the world,” he asked. Orsi said that spiritual leaders are deceived if they hope that by referring to Biden as a Catholic it may open up a road for them to “dialogue” with the president.

“Dialogue means that you can come to some kind of common ground, negotiate a deal. There can be no negotiations, there can be no deal, when it comes to abortion and the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death,” he said.

“And I ask you, when has there ever been a compromise with the ‘pro-choice,’ pro-death, left wing who demands that abortion be an unlimited right of every woman? Compromise? Dialogue? We've gone from 1973 permission of abortion, to partial-birth abortion, to infanticide – killing a baby even after the baby is born, (when) the mother and the doctor can decide whether or not the baby should live. That is the fruit of dialogue.”

Fr. Orsi warned Catholics against being “duped” into thinking that they can support Biden for his immigration or environment policies while ignoring the president’s abortion policies. How one deals with such matters as immigration and the environment is a matter of prudential judgment that can go one way or another in “solving the problem,” he said. But, not so with abortion, which he pointed out was an “intrinsically evil” act.

“There is no way of un-killing a baby,” he stated.

The priest said that many Catholics who support Biden have fallen into the trap of “secularism” where they falsely hold that Catholics “have to all try to get along with the rest of the world,” even when the rest of the world is guided by principles that are “antithetical to what the gospel proclaims.”

The gospel says this today: Repent, repent, and follow me. Repent and hear the Good News. Repent and believe in the Gospel,” Fr. Orsi said.

Some Catholic leaders in the United States, such a Cardinal Raymond Burke, have made it clear that Biden should be refused Holy Communion due to his public support for abortion. Some other Catholic leaders, such as Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington, D.C., have stated that they will give Holy Communion to Biden.

The Catholic Church teaches (Code of Canon Law, can. 915) that Catholics who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.” According to a 2004 memo issued to the U.S. bishops by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who is now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a Catholic politician who is “consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws” manifests “formal cooperation” with grave sin and must be “denied” the Eucharist.

“This decision, properly speaking, is not a sanction or a penalty. Nor is the minister of Holy Communion passing judgment on the person’s subjective guilt, but rather is reacting to the person’s public unworthiness to receive Holy Communion due to an objective situation of sin,” stated the memo.