(LifeSiteNews) — Anthony Fauci, the former lockdown pioneer and COVID adviser to Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, said that he still “identifies” as Catholic but does not practice the faith.
Asked by BBC’s Katty Kay why he does not practice Catholicism anymore, Fauci said the reasons were “complicated.”
“A number of complicated reasons,” Fauci said, while laughing.
Fauci: I Identify as Catholic, But My ‘Personal Ethics on Life’ Are So Strong that I’ve No Need to Practice the Religion
MORE: https://t.co/aDm1WLmbe2#AnthonyFauci #Fauci #CatholicTwitter #Catholic pic.twitter.com/aNLNKjUilZ
— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) December 14, 2023
Fauci, who worked to cover up the true origins of the COVID lab leak, said his “own personal ethics” are enough to keep him moral.
“First of all, I think my own personal ethics in life are enough to keep me going on the right path,” the former high-ranking bureaucrat said. “And I think that there are enough negative aspects about the organizational church, that you are very well aware of.”
READ: What Fauci’s emails tell us about his deadly incompetence and mishandling of COVID
“I’m not against it,” Fauci said, before sharing that he had received sacraments in the Church and had his children baptized Catholics.
“I identify myself as a Catholic,” Fauci said.
“But as far as practicing it, it seems almost like a pro forma thing that I don’t really need to do.”
Anthony Fauci says he doesn't need Catholicism because his "personal ethics" are enough. "Practicing" religion is a "pro forma thing" he doesn't need. pic.twitter.com/eFCyUtojXY
— Matt Lamb (@MattLamb22) December 12, 2023
Fauci made similar comments when he won an award as the 2021 Humanist of the Year.
“The Jesuit education that I had the good fortune to receive in high school and in college inspired my interest in philosophy and imparted important life principles,” he said in 2021. “My outlook has since evolved to align with the concept of making the world a better place rather than being involved in any organized religion.”
“Yet, these Jesuit principles have been an invaluable guide for decades in my role as a public health official,” he said. “Chief among these principles are staying faithful to the truth, even truths that may be inconvenient to some; communicating for understanding according to the adage, precision of thought and economy of expression; and pursuing social justice as well as service to others.”
Catholics bound to Church law
Catholics, no matter their own “personal ethics,” are still bound to Church law. This includes attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.
Furthermore, the Catholic Church has condemned the error that someone can save himself or herself outside of the Church.
Pope Pius IX, in Qui Pluribus, condemned the error that “men can gain eternal salvation by the practice of any religion, as if there could ever be any sharing between justice and iniquity, any collaboration between light and darkness, or any agreement between Christ and Belial.”
Pope Pius IX said in the allocution Singulari quadem that some men “foolishly think” that “human reason … is to be held equal to religion itself.”
Fauci’s statement that his “personal ethics” are enough to keep him on the straight and narrow is also similar to the heresy of Pelagianism.
This belief, condemned at the Council of Carthage in 418, erroneously held that divine grace was helpful but not necessary for humans to live a sinless life.