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Biden and the Catholic Bishops: A Difficult and Complex Situation?
Most here probably don’t know, and many probably don’t care, that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) held their annual meeting this week. It was the now too typical virtual meeting with COVID theater.
I find the USCCB a useless organization, it fits the old description of a group of liberal Democrats at prayer. But what is interesting is that we may have a “Catholic” President in the person of Joe Biden. What are the bishops to do?
Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles is the conference president and had this to offer in regard to a self-professed Catholic taking the highest office in the land and how the USCCB will deal with this situation:
“For only the second time, we are anticipating a transition to a president who professes the Catholic faith. This presents certain opportunities but also certain challenges,” Gomez said at the close of the USCCB Fall General Assembly on Nov. 17.
The archbishop said the bishops face “a unique moment in the history of the Church in this country.”
“The president-elect has given us reason to believe that his faith commitments will move him to support some good policies. This includes policies of immigration reform, refugees and the poor, and against racism, the death penalty, and climate change.”
“He has also given us reason to believe that he will support policies that are against some fundamental values that we hold dear as Catholics. These policies include: the repeal of the Hyde Amendment and the preservation of Roe vs. Wade. Both of these policies undermine our preeminent priority of the elimination of abortion.
Gomez also told the bishops that Biden has signaled his support for “the restoration of the HHS mandate, the passage of the Equality Act, and the unequal treatment of Catholic schools.”
“These policies pose a serious threat to the common good, whenever any politician supports them. We have long opposed these policies strongly, and we will continue to do so.”
“But when politicians who profess the Catholic faith support them, there are additional problems. Among other things, it creates confusion among the faithful about what the Church actually teaches on these questions.”
“This is a difficult and complex situation,” Gomez told the bishops. “In order to help us to navigate it, [the conference] will appoint a working group, chaired by Archbishop Vigneron and consisting of the chairmen of the committees responsible for the policy areas at stake, as well as the committee on doctrine and communications.”
As President Trump is wont to say: WRONG.
The “good” policies that Archbishop Gomez listed (racism excepted) are all subjective and prudential judgments. The policies that Archbishop Gomez says “are against some fundamental values that we hold dear as Catholics” are not subjective nor are they open to prudential judgment.
This is not a “difficult and complex situation”. It is quite simple. Teach clearly. Put out a clear statement (how about just re-issuing “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion – General Principles”) on why it was wrong for a Catholic to vote for a pro-abort politician without a proportionate reason and clearly explain Canon 915 as to why Biden must be denied Holy Communion until he publicly recants his positions.
Instead they will create a working group. Pathetic. Weak. Effeminate. Scandalous. That is the USCCB.
Published in Religion & Philosophy📹VIDEO | Archbishop Jose Gomez @ArchbishopGomez told US bishops that a future President @JoeBiden, as a #Catholic, would present unique challenges for the Church in the United States. #USCCB20
Read the full story here: https://t.co/mBfuT5ul01pic.twitter.com/EcKgrn0gTG
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) November 18, 2020
That’s the problem right there. Those are not Catholic values, those are DNC-socialist values as they are presented. The Catholic Church and the USCCB should be focused on:
* faith and protecting Catholic expression
* strong families and aligning all public policy and messaging toward strong nuclear family
* pro-life (conception to natural death) and prison reform
* prosperity and personal charity to aid the poor
* ending unjust wars/promoting peace
* protecting Christians where ever they are persecuted
* full school choice
Instead we get the DNC-socialist focus:
* open immigration (destroying sovereignty)
* govt welfare (displacing personal charity)
* backing abortion promoters
* inaction on death penalty and prison reform (
* Marxist racist division (which is evil against creation)
* climate change (pretense for pagan Gaia worship, population control, and communism)
The USCCB is worse that useless, they are a distortion of traditional Catholic values.
Working group? The USCCB should be abolished. Individual bishops should be ashamed. I guess its becoming too much for the bishops to actually proclaim truth. “Is the pope Catholic?” is no longer a rhetorical question.
All of which the Democrats oppose or actively work to damage. Shameful.
Joe Biden is an accidental Catholic. He’s the perfect example of a poorly catechized Catholic. His VP choice is far worse. She is the perfect example of an anti-Catholic bigot. There are some bishops that have not been fooled by these two.
I would like to also draw attention to Christian institutions under fire that have not already been mentioned, adoption agencies, orphanages, and hospitals. Christian values are being legislated out and institutions are closing because of it, leaving orphans and patients in the hands of a new generation of health care employees that eschew the Hippocratic Oath but closely toe the insurers’ line.
More scandalously, VP Biden has endorsed forcing experimental treatments on eight year olds, eight year olds, who express gender confusion. This is genuine atrocity, damaging these children in ways they do not understand, and under the current judicial order, against the will and strident objections of faithful parents. For this position alone he and his familiars should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Dr. Josef Mengele would be proud to serve under a Biden Administration.
Is there anything else we might have overlooked? We need a full bill of bads.
The Catholic Church has a strong history of being very globalist in its enterprise. There were, at one point, variations of expression by region, but at a certain point in medieval history (probably when they became more interested in politics than faith), it’s aim seems to change. There’s still, in the local churches, and apparently among some bishops and cardinals, a dedication to the original mission, but global hegemony is a goal of the upper church and has been since Holy Roman Emperors were a thing.
As such, the leadership amenable to this are going to be sympatico with socialist and global regimes like China, Davos Men, the EU, the American Democrat Party, and their pet projects. Francis, I would expect, would be a great champion of The Great Reset, and I expect a great number of American Catholic leaders are as well.
This isn’t to say anything about the Catholic church’s deposit of faith. It has more to say about the leadership and the loose translations used to justify global dominance of the church (for man’s glory rather than God’s).
The slate of bishops taking over as chairmen is pretty solid. There is some good news here:
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/the-usccb-just-showed-its-hand
Ah yes; but all this will be resolved by the “working group”. I feel better already…
Nothing says Catholic more than suing the Little Sisters of the Poor
The Catholic hierarchy continues to fail
While not perfect, this is good news indeed. May His will be done.
I don’t know @westernchauvinist – I don’t trust anything the USCCB does. I hope this is good news, but I don’t trust Dolan or Lori to act like men with spines.
Maybe with a little intercession.
We’ve got to take the good news where we can. I don’t think Dolan will bend on religious freedom. I expect Lori to be the biggest disappointment as the pro-life director (he’s got big shoes to fill), but even he won’t endorse the Biden abortion agenda. He might just do some “seamless garment” garbage, which would be discouraging. Sisyphus is right — intercessory prayer is in order.
Every time I hear Biden mention his Catholic faith, it makes me want to barf. Every time I hear the Bishops make nice to Biden or the Dems in general I want to explode. The fools. They should know by now the Dems are out for the destruction of Christianity and the Church. It’s the blind leading the blind.
The USCCB needs to be reminded at every turn that Joe Biden as VP officiated a “wedding” between two men. It was purely an act of his personal desire since at the time he had no expectations of political play. This is the true Joe Biden.
It makes me furious. He is a false teacher about what Catholicism is, and so many are so ignorant, they’ll believe it. He’s an apostate posing as one of the faithful.
http://blog.adw.org/2015/05/an-ancient-bishop-rebukes-his-emperor-for-crimes-against-life-a-story-of-st-ambrose-and-the-emperor-theodosius-2/
@sisyphus and @westernchauvinist – I agree 100% on the intercessory prayer – thank you for stating this.
“This is a difficult and complex situation,” Gomez told the bishops. “In order to help us to navigate it, [the conference] will appoint a working group, chaired by Archbishop
VigneronVigano and consisting of the chairmen of the committees responsible for the policy areas at stake, as well as the committee on doctrine and communications.”FIF Them
As a Catholic (whose experience and exposure to all the worse characters of the last two decades of moral depravity in the US episcopate is surreal ) , I was recently convinced by a young convert named Timothy Flanders of the meaningofcatholic.com that I and all of the faithful are blessed to live such times as these because of these challenges to belief. Bishops have failed since Good Friday.
Be Saint Athanasius against the world (Contra Mundum) and have the Courage to act alone being faithful to the truth no matter what error Bishop might proposed.
Not only that, but we’re going to get some great saints out of this.
You’re a Catholic? Who would have guessed? Not by your avatar. :-P
The response from Thomas Reese, S.J. is not exactly correct. Schism, or heresy is not subject to geographical boundaries. Any bishop can deny him Communion in their diocese.
This is not untypical of a Jesuit, it’s the old canard of; It depends upon what the meaning of is is. Made famous by a Georgetown grad, Bill Clinton.
This tweet by “Catholic theologian” Rich Raho, linking to a disgraceful Op-Ed in the LATimes by an Episcopalian priest, is exactly the type of garbage that the USCCB should condemn; if they had a spine. Being an Episcopalian, I can understand the ignorance that Randall Balmer has about the Church. But our “theologian” Rich has no such excuse.
There is one line in the article that gives me hope:
Bishop Strickland is my bishop and I love him. If the race is called for Biden through the appropriate Constitutional means, then I am sure Bishop Strickland will pray for the new administration – particularly the conversion of the “devout Catholic” Joe Biden.
I never heard Raho. (Is it a coincidence it rhymes with A-ho? LoL) But what universe is he living in if he thinks the Bishops gave Trump a pass? And that’s despite Trump being anti abortion and for religious liberty.