….Can you see why so many Catholics, including your humble scribe, find the President’s statements and actions in regard to abortion policy so repellent? The man claims that he objects to abortion, that he considers it morally wrong, and yet, time and time again, in the most straightforward, even strenuous manner, he strives, by word and deed, to make it more available, more acceptable, more legally defended.
In the nineteenth century, the viscerally anti-slavery Abraham Lincoln did not pursue the extreme anti-slavery policy advocated by the abolitionists; rather, he took a more moderate position, endeavoring to hem slavery in, to limit its spread, in the hopes that he was setting it on course for extinction. This was, for the sixteenth president, a matter of prudential political judgment.
If our current president, convinced as he claims to be that abortion is wrong, were to take steps in the direction of curtailing the practice, or if he could have found positive words to say about the Dobbs decision that at least gives individual states the right to restrict abortion, I might see him in the mold of Lincoln. But instead, he presses forward, advocating the most radical pro-abortion policy imaginable, seeking to codify into law the Roe v. Wade and Casey decisions that essentially made abortion up to the moment of birth a matter of legal impunity in our country.
President Biden speaks often of his Catholic faith, attends Mass regularly, and prays the Rosary. I have absolutely no reason to doubt the sincerity of his Catholicism. But I am sorry to say that, in regard to the most pressing moral issue of our time, he stands athwart both right reason and the explicit teaching of his Church.
The above comes from an August 5 posting of Word on Fire by Bishop Robert Barron.
God bless you, Bishop. It is essential prominent BIshops such as yourself speak out against the president’s support for the killing of unborn babies.
If Bishop Barron has “no reason to doubt” the sincerity of Biden’s Catholicism, that alone is reason to doubt Bishop Barron’s ability to size up a person honestly or to be honest about him. Support for abortion is an automatic and obvious reason to doubt an ostensible Catholic’s sincerity of faith. But Biden doesn’t stop there: he also supports LGBT wholeheartedly. That should be another automatic and obvious reason to doubt the sincerity of his Catholic faith. Wake up, Bishop Barron!
I believe that Bishop Barron expressed himself as he did NOT to diminish his absolute opposition to Biden’s words and actions re: abortion but to differentiate [1] whether Biden is OBJECTIVELY and actively opposing the Church’s teaching on abortion, which is OBJECTIVELY impermissible morally, versus [2] whether Biden is SUBJECTIVELY guilty of the the grave evil his speech and actions entail. Every bishop should loudly, and often, insist on [1]. But since no one but God can judge the state of Biden’s soul, Bishop Barron rightly passes no judgment on [2]. This is not double-speak but rather how our Church’s moral theology works.
Oh, please, the only way Biden could not be subjectively guilty now is if he has severe Alzheimer’s, in which case he shouldn’t be the president. Wait, maybe it’s true. But Biden surely knew and was guilty before he developed cognitive impairment. You mean to say that Biden for decades never knew what the Church’s teaching about abortion is and never gave time to think about whether he should support abortion legislation? At the very least, he is guilty then of severe moral neglect, as are the priests and bishops who have had responsibility for pastoring Biden.
Recall that when Biden was Vice-President, he went out of his way to get a temporary license so he could personally perform a same-sex wedding ceremony at the official VP residence. Is that “objective” enough evidence for guilt? As POTUS, Biden uses the powers of his office as far as possible to facilitate abortion. There is no way to whitewash this assessment of Biden’s soul. It’s called “acting as an accessory to another’s sin”. And it has always been sinful, according what our Church’s moral theology teaches .
Politicians who support abortion and continue to claim a Catholic faith with Eucharistic reception and personal devotion are living their own personal faiths, not the Catholic faith. The use of the faith is a prop for an agenda to give them credibility before others, just as it was for a churchman likeTed McCarrick and other sexual predators. Pray for Joseph Biden and for all politicians and church folk for a conversion to Jesus and from freedom from the evils which have captured their souls.
Fr. Richard – It is entirely evident that Biden and Pelosi fall into a Catholicity which sees the Eucharist as merely symbolic and not the True Presence. That being the case, it is then easy for them to approach the altar with, ahem, cough, a clear conscience.
A Catholic faith with no Eucharist is NOT the CAtholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1324-1327), states that, “The Eucharist is “the source and summit” of the Christian life. No, And, btw, the Devil “believes.” He knows who Jesus is. Catholic/Christian is as Catholic/Christian DOES. One cannot, in ernest “pray the Rosary” and seek to have Rosary praying Christians arrested for opposing child killing. Bishop Baron is quite milquetoast as are too many bishops. The lack testicular fortitude. He can’t just call a spade a spade. Basta!!
Yes. But…remember in the places where the Faith is persecuted or priests are few, Catholics may not have access to the Eucharist and they are still Catholic.
I know…not your main thought.
As always, Father Rich gives the best advice. Thank you Father.
Does Bishop Barron have any reason to doubt the sincerity of Ted McCarrick’s Catholicism? After all, Cardinal McCarrick went to Mass and prayed the rosary too. That thing with those seminarians all those years? Oh, he was just unfortunately standing athwart the Church’s teaching.
You must have to take a proficiency test in doublespeak to become a bishop these days.
But with regard to the rest [those who are not infidels, heretics and schismatics or excommunicated persons] however wicked and evil they may be, it is certain that they still belong to the Church: Of this the faithful are frequently to be reminded, in order to be convinced that, were even the lives of
her ministers debased by crime, they are still within the Church, and therefore lose nothing of their power
Just read the Diocese of San Jose’s summary synod report, and you’ll quickly conclude that the vast majority of Catholics are just like Biden and Pelosi. They don’t have a clue what Catholicism is, and they hope for the church to become a religious wing of the Democrat Party, with full support of abortion, gay marriage, contraception, women priests, and all the other predictable things. The church is a mess. Hardly any Catholics know what it means to be Catholic. You can probably conclude that very few Catholics have sincere Catholic faith, as Bishop Barron claims Biden has. What a laugh. Just read the report. It’s all there for you to read and see the horrors of the modern-day church.
Thank you for this. I looked at it. Once again, very few participated. So you could not make the conclusions that you did but what jumped out at me was the level of education of the participants. It obviously does not represent the population.
Yeah, a survey of only about 2,000 people (in a diocese of over 600,000 Catholics, so they didn’t even get one-half of one percent yield), half of whom were older than age 54 and two-thirds of whom were women. The youth are nowhere to be found in the church. If anything, that survey shows what left-leaning, post-menopausal women think, and the results show that they are not in union with the church.
Imagine being a priest and having to deal with all this.
We are all supposed to be of one mind and heart (that of Christ.)
It can tell you where you need to minister or explain Church teaching.
It does not mean that Church teaching will change.
There are some people we cannot reach but we keep trying.
Some men need to elevate themselves above their animal state . It’s just not immaculate conception .
“Bishop Barron compares Biden to Lincoln”
I never realized Lincoln was demented!
You should talk. Some President you were! At least dummy compared him in the negativ.
Actions speak more loudly than words!