As a Catholic president, Joe Biden’s faith matters to church leaders. Acceptance or rejection of Biden as a person of faith depends on each leader’s image of God and their understanding of the Gospel.
Biden’s Faith: A Positive Response
Archbishop Wilton Gregory, recently named as the first African-American cardinal, was asked why he would not deny Communion to President Biden. His reply focused on his desire to begin a relationship with the president that allows them to have a serious conversation. He admitted that there are issues that Biden and he will be diametrically opposed to but said that he hopes to capitalize on issues on which they can work together. His remarkable statement, “I don’t want to go to the table with a gun on the table first,” emphasizes the powerful truth that the Eucharist is not a weapon. Read more here
Cardinal Gregory hopes to engage in real dialogue, reminding us that our pope believes we should be a church in dialogue even when we disagree. He also dismissed the fear of giving bad example because he accepts adult believers as informed Catholics who know the church’s teaching on the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death. And he does not believe his cooperation with the Biden administration on other issues would confuse those adult Catholics. Read more here
Biden’s Faith: A Negative Response
The opposite stance was taken by Father Robert Morey, the pastor at Saint Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina. Fr. Morey said that he had denied Biden communion because “any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.” Fr. Morey makes an erroneous judgment that one issue alone defines who is Catholic. Read more here
In addition, those who concentrate only on anti-abortion mistakenly equate pro-choice as advocating abortion. Pro-choice is what it says: a choice. Because God gave us free will we have the choice to choose right or wrong. God allows us to make decisions that are contrary to God’s laws. Although God allows us to choose death, our Creator continues walking with us as a good parent who never stops encouraging us to change. God always calls us to choose life but waits until we freely make that choice.
Conclusion
Fr. Morey, like too many other priests, bishops, and one-issue Catholic voters have ignored the common good. They have not heard Pope Francis and ignore the issues he has equated as equally sacred to the defense of the unborn
Their blindness has been combined with ranting videos, demonizing homilies and judgmental warnings about hell. All church leaders who contributed to the environment of misinformation added gasoline to the trash heap of hatred that erupted in the assault on our democracy on January 6. Read more here
Well expressed. Thank you!