I am a Catholic, from a long line of Catholics. My eight great-grandparents came from five different countries on contemporary maps, and counted six different native tongues between them, but all except one were Catholics from birth, and the lone exception become a sincere and committed Catholic. Their actions show that they felt far more attachment to their Catholic faith than to the lands they left to come to America or to the languages they or their children chose not to pass on.
So I suppose I should feel at least some tribal pride at the inauguration of our second Catholic president. But I feel the precise opposite.
Joe Biden ran for and won the Presidency as an ardent champion of unrestricted abortion on demand. He has pledged to use the might of the federal government to coerce nuns to underwrite contraception, including what they regard as abortifacients, in violation of their conscience. He has welcomed the societal redefinition of marriage as a positive good, and advocated for transgenderism for second graders. In all these matters, he is contradicting clear Catholic teaching.
Yet he will be fully welcomed today by the great bulk of Catholic bishops, including the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington D. C., few of whom have said anything of note about Biden’s unstinting support for what the Church considers the unjustified taking of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, year in, year out.
You have made your choice, your Excellencies. Just don’t expect the rest of us to pay much attention to your pronouncements on political matters from now on. If Joe Biden makes the cut, so do we all.
