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February 4, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Joe Biden is a man of many epithets. There is Joe Biden of Scranton, the blue-collar guy who understands the plight of the working class. There is Joe Biden the Sufferer, whose life story has granted him supreme empathy for every person on the face of the earth. But perhaps no title figures more prominently in the Biden mythology, or has proven more useful, than that of Joe Biden the Devout Catholic.
That title has been especially ubiquitous since his ascendance to the presidency just weeks ago. Following Biden’s inauguration, paeans to his Catholicism were numerous throughout the media. “Joe Biden has been back in Washington for six days, and already he has attended Catholic Mass twice,” gushed the BBC. “Religious leaders welcome Joe Biden’s election as 2nd Catholic to win presidency” ran the ABC News headline. The New York Times feted him as “perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in a half-century.”
Meanwhile, during the first White House press conference, a reporter from EWTN asked for clarification regarding Biden’s shifting position on taxpayer funding of abortion. In typical style, Press Secretary Jen Psaki sidestepped the question by instead offering the journalists a quick refresher on the Biden lore: “I will just take the opportunity to remind all of you,” she said, “that [Joe Biden] is a devout Catholic and somebody who attends church regularly.” Next question.
Such comments have presented a stark contrast to how Democrats often treated Catholicism prior to Biden’s candidacy. During the Trump administration, nominees to various positions were repeatedly scrutinized for associations as innocuous as membership in the Knights of Columbus. Some Democratic senators even suggested that belief in Church teaching was in itself disqualifying for public service — the most glaring example being Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) infamous declaration that Catholic dogma might live a little too loudly in now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
But all that has changed now, no doubt because Democrats realized they have a Catholic problem. Electorally, Democrats are concerned that Catholics and other Christians put so much stock in social issues, particularly in the plight of the unborn. In a recent discussion, for example, Nancy Pelosi told Hillary Clinton of her “great grief” that Catholics and Evangelicals, because of abortion, had been the deciding factor in the 2016 election.
And in terms of policy, Democrats seem to recognize that the full implementation of their current agenda, especially when it comes to abortion and gender ideology, will require the submission or subdual of the Catholic Church and Christian institutions in general. Nuns will have to pay for abortifacients, Catholic hospitals will have to provide sex changes, and so on. There is no room in their brave new world for any major institution that’s unwilling to get on board.
For a while, the left may have hoped to seize the Catholic hierarchy in the same way that they have come to control all the other institutions — by capturing the elites. But despite the fact that several prominent bishops in the country, and higher-ups in the Vatican, seem to be fully committed to the success of the Democratic Party, the kind of change they wished for has not materialized. Indeed, despite some loud objectors, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement on the first day of Biden’s presidency condemning the moral evils of the incoming administration’s agenda.
So now, the left has adopted a new strategy: to use their cultural power to redefine Catholicism away from moral teaching they oppose. Under Joe Biden, Democrats now seem intent on paring Catholicism down to a set of cultural identifiers and turning it into yet another identity group, the definition and contours of which they have the influence to shape.
The advantages of this plan are obvious. For one, it becomes very easy to transform anyone into the poster child of true Catholicism even if that person opposes Catholic belief in every particular. In Biden’s case, all one has to do is put out press releases when he goes to Mass, or take a photo of him with a rosary in his hand, or trot out some clergyman to speak at the inauguration. Nancy Pelosi has long recognized the utility of such cultural signifiers. In the same discussion with Clinton, she described her response to those who accuse her of insufficient Catholicity: “When you have five children in six years, you come around and talk to me.”
There is also a heavy institutional push to promote the new vision of Catholicism. Seemingly out of nowhere, an organization called “Catholics for Choice” has managed to acquire enough money to revamp their communications team, including by hiring a non-Catholic transgender Twitter celebrity as the new “Director of Communications and Strategy.” As for the media, the press seems incapable of calling Joe Biden a Catholic without appending the word “devout” to the front.
Of course, the word “devout” here does not mean anything about commitment to the substance of the faith, or adherence to moral doctrine. It is hard to call Biden, who is pursuing a radically anti-Catholic agenda on abortion and transgender ideology, “devout” in that sense. Instead, it denotes a sort of nebulous set of outward signifiers. Joe Biden is friends with priests, he goes to Mass, he owns a rosary. Moreover, he quotes St. Augustine and “On Eagle’s Wings.” What could be more Catholic than that?
PETITION UPDATE (3/15/21) -
Reports suggest that the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference (USCCB) is preparing a vote on what to do about pro-abortion Joe Biden (and, presumably, other abortion-promoting politicians) who continues to present himself (themselves) for Holy Communion.
Public excommunication would be a suitable response for Biden's obstinate, public and grave sin of scandalously promoting abortion.
Please continue to SIGN and SHARE this important petition.
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PETITION UPDATE (2/4/20)
Since Joe Biden was sworn-in on the 20th of January, he has wasted no time in signing Executive Orders to destroy the protections which former President Trump offered to the unborn and to the innocence and modesty of children of the United States.
In one executive order, Biden rescinded the Mexico City Policy prohibiting the federal government from spending taxpayer monies on abortion and the promotion of abortion.
And, in another executive order, Biden seeks to force girls' athletic programs, restrooms, and locker rooms to accept gender-confused males.
Since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was shamefully silent throughout the presidential campaign on the pre-eminent issues of abortion and gender ideology, and what Biden vowed he would do as president, it is cold comfort that their pro-life office is now speaking up about this Administration's wilful disregard for human life and for God's design of human nature (i.e., two biological sexes).
Stated plainly, Joe Biden is as bad as he said he would be, and the bishop, acting in unison (as the USCCB) have an obligation to the Lord (first) and to the faithful (second) to refuse Holy Communion to this grave public sinner.
With all due respect to these bishops, they diminish the Holy Eucharist and their high office, as well as cause grave scandal to the faithful, by dialoguing with a man who is promoting mass murder of the unborn against the constant teaching of the Church.
A man who continues to use the church as a backdrop for statements about how "Catholic/religious" he is, but, at the same time, is now doing everything in his power to protect the murder of the innocent, needs to publicly repent before dialogue can begin.
The bishops should not dialogue with or congratulate someone who has publicly betrayed the Church's teaching and who is leading others astray.
It's an embarrassment and a scandal for the bishops to continue to allow him to receive Holy Communion.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition today!
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PETITION UPDATE (12/10/20)
Prior to the election on November 3, the U.S. bishops did not address Joe Biden’s anti-Catholic position regarding faith and morals as a unified body.
The USCCB, the organization to which every U.S. bishop belongs and which is staffed and led by bishops, remained disgracefully silent in the run-up to the election.
What were the bishops afraid of, losing their charitable tax status with the IRS, or being deprived of fat checks from the HHS (immigration programs) and USAID (foreign aid programs)?
Or, were they just too cowardly to clearly declare Christ's law to be above man's law and risk the ire of a Joe Biden as president?
Either way, the bishops’ lack of clarity in this regard is a terrible scandal in itself and probably greatly contributed to the possible election of a pro-abortion, anti-Catholic Catholic to the presidency.
Given the fact that exit polling shows Catholics split their vote 50-50 for Trump and Biden, even a slight deviation in the heavily-Catholic swing-states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could have produced different results.
The bishops could have spoken out against Biden’s pro-abortion stance collectively, but, again, they were overwhelmingly and shamefully silent.
Because of this, they will be at least partly responsible for the policies advanced by a Biden administration, in the event that Biden is sworn into office.
However, the bishops can, even now, mitigate the damage done by their inaction by taking the following steps: 1) Speak with one voice, as the USCCB, and plainly condemn Biden's pro-abortion stance; 2) Publicly advise Biden not to present himself for Holy Communion because of his scandalous position on abortion and homosexual "marriage;" and, 3) Tell Biden to publicly repent of publicly promoting the wilfull murder of the preborn, sins against nature, and diminishing the natural family.
Thankfully, some individual bishops have spoken out forcefully on Biden's scandalous behavior, and his standing in the Church.
On November 9, Archbishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas tweeted: “A dark cloud has descended on this nation when the USCCB and Planned Parenthood speak in unison in support of a Biden-Harris administration that supports the slaughter of innocents by abortion for all 9 months of pregnancy.”
Additionally, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, Colorado and Archbishop Charles Chaput have both declared publicly that Joe Biden “should not receive Holy Communion."
But, to add insult to injury, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. has said that he will give Holy Communion to Biden because “it’s a matter of the responsibility that I have as the archbishop to be engaged and to be in dialogue with him, even in those areas where we obviously have some differences.”
And, Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware and Bishop McElroy of San Diego also congratulated Biden in statements, but they have not indicated whether or not they would administer Holy Communion to him.
With all due respect to these bishops, they diminish the Holy Eucharist and their high office, as well as cause grave scandal to the faithful, by dialoguing with a man who is promoting mass murder of the unborn against the constant teaching of the Church.
A man who uses the church as a backdrop to make sickening political advertisements about how "Catholic/religious" he is, but, at the same time, says that he will do everything in his power to protect the murder of the innocent, needs to publicly repent before dialogue can begin.
The bishops should not dialogue with or congratulate someone who has publicly betrayed the Church's teaching and who is leading others astray.
It's an embarrassment and a scandal for the bishops to continue to allow him to receive Holy Communion.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition today!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/us-catholics-weigh-mixed-reaction-biden-win
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PETITION UPDATE (9/29/20)
Cardinal Raymond Burke has stated that Democratic candidate Joe Biden should not receive Holy Communion because of his support for abortion.
In an interview for Thomas McKenna's Catholic Action for Faith and Family podcast, Cardinal Burke states the following (starting around 5:00):
First of all, I would tell him [Biden] not to approach to receive Holy Communion, out of charity toward him, because that would be a sacrilege and endanger the salvation of his own soul.
But, also, he should not approach to receive Holy Communion because he gives scandal to everyone, because if someone says, 'I'm a devout Catholic," and, at the same time is promoting abortion, it gives the impression to others that it's acceptable for a Catholic to be in favor of abortion.
Of course, it's absolutely not acceptable, and never has been, and never will be.
We give thanks for Cardinal Burke's frankness and clarity. And, we call on every U.S. Catholic bishop to follow Cardinal Burke's lead and call out Joe Biden for his bloody-minded hypocrisy on the issue of abortion.
To reiterate: You cannot be a Catholic and support abortion.
Thank you for continuing to sign this urgent petition.
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PETITION UPDATE (8/17/20)
The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, keeps claiming to be Catholic but has said he will do everything in his power to support abortion.
And, with his pick of California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, Biden has just cemented abortion into the Democrats' 2020 presidential ticket.
Indeed, Harris is vehemently pro-abortion.
During her time as attorney general of California, Harris played a key role in defending Planned Parenthood over its sale of aborted baby parts (which violated multiple federal laws, according to undercover video of abortion industry personnel).
And, last year, Harris unveiled a plan to essentially force pro-life states to seek permission from the federal government before pro-life laws can take effect.
Additionally, Harris has dangerous views on religious liberty and freedom of speech.
Harris displayed anti-Catholic bigotry in the confirmation hearings of Judge Brian Buescher. Harris cited his membership in the “all-male society” the Knights of Columbus and its stances against abortion and same-sex “marriage” as grounds for rejecting Buescher for a federal district court in Nebraska.
And, David Daleiden, head of the pro-life investigative group Center for Medical Progress, wrote that from his firsthand experience, he considers Harris the “greatest threat to First Amendment civil rights our country has ever seen.”
Joe Biden has seriously erred by taking on Kamala Harris as his running mate, further distancing himself from the truths of the Catholic Faith, especially that every life is sacred from conception till natural death.
Please CLICK HERE to read an article which details one U.S. bishop's warning about the Biden-Harris ticket.
And, please continue to SIGN and SHARE this petition.
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Of course, these two things are incompatible: you cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion.
And, a "Catholic" politician's responsibility in this regard is absolute: On pain of serious sin, he or she can never promote abortion because abortion is the wilful murder of innocent preborn human beings, and also because doing so causes grave scandal to the Church and the faithful.
Please SIGN this urgent petition asking the bishops of the United States to refuse to give Holy Communion to Joe Biden until he publicly repents from his scandalous promotion of abortion.
Biden recently promised to “codify Roe v. Wade” as president, adding, "my Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate a woman’s protected, constitutional right to choose."
And, since starting his latest run for the presidency, Biden also flip-flopped against the Hyde Amendment, saying that he would allow federal funds to be spent on abortion - a position he claimed to be against for more than 40 years.
In short, Joe Biden will do everything in his power to enable and defend the wilful murder of innocent preborn human beings.
So, this should not be a hard decision for our U.S. bishops. In fact, in another circumstance, it was already done by an Illinois bishop.
Indeed, Bishop Paprocki, of Springfield, Illinois, invoked Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law to withdraw Holy Communion from two Illinois state politicians who had worked to enact radical new abortion legislation in 2019.
Canon 915 states: "Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."
Of course, no-one, least of all the bishops, wants anyone to be deprived of Holy Communion.
A politician who publicly and obstinately advocates for the murder of innocent preborn babies puts himself out-of-communion with the Church and her teaching.
Pro-abortion politicians should not think that they can advocate for the murder of the unborn and receive the Body of Christ at the same time. This would be to defile the Eucharist while giving scandal to the faithful.
Depriving politicians of Holy Communion is not just meant to prevent scandal; it is also designed to bring a grave public sinner to repentance. In this way, such an action is meant to be for the good of their souls, too.
Thank you for SIGNING this urgent petition which calls on the U.S. Catholic bishops to refuse to admit Joe Biden to Holy Communion until he publicly repents from his scandalous promotion of abortion.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Joe Biden: I support abortion ‘under any circumstance’ - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/joe-biden-i-support-abortion-under-any-circumstance
Catholic priest denies Joe Biden Holy Communion for pro-abortion stance - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholic-priest-denies-joe-biden-holy-communion-for-pro-abortion-stance
Cardinal McCarrick and the Concealing of Rome’s Position on Denying Communion - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-mccarrick-and-the-concealing-of-romes-position-on-denying-communio
**Photo Credit: Joshua Roberts / Getty Images
Hadley Arkes has pointed out that Joe Biden is an “authoritative type”: someone likely, because of his office, to influence public opinion on what exactly it means to be “devout.” And that is the point. If the left can’t change the dogma or control the hierarchy to the extent that they would like, they will simply define these problems away. It is a similar sleight-of-hand to the Democratic attempt to whittle “religious freedom” down to “freedom of worship.” When religion is pared down to a set of certain external acts, you can punish adherence to the substance without being accused of persecution.
This is why Catholics, especially prominent ones, should not be excited about the present public theater of Catholic piety, nor should they fool themselves into thinking such lip-service is better than nothing. The cultural left is asserting the right to define what features of Christianity are essential and which are not, ultimately reducing the Church in the public eye to a nice club, devoid of moral substance and weight. It will smooth the road to persecution and help cover it up when it happens.
It was precisely for this reason that Christ warned of claimants to His authority “by their fruits you will know them.” And the full fruits of Joe Biden the Devout Catholic will be known soon enough.
Frank Cannon is president of the American Principles Project. You can follow him on Twitter @frankcannonAPP.