Biden's Catholic faith: Campaign ads vs reality

FPI / August 16, 2020

Joe Biden's campaign on Aug. 9 released a video which credits his Catholic faith, Pope Francis, and "nuns" for his inspiration to run for president.

The Democrat presidential candidate has already been called out for abandoning his Catholic faith due to his support for abortion on demand. Last November, Biden was denied Holy Communion at a parish in South Carolina due to his abortion advocacy.

Biden has also vowed to “restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood,” and promises to “rescind the Mexico City Policy (also referred to as the global gag rule) that President Trump reinstated and expanded.”

As for his claim to be inspired by "nuns," Biden has vowed to remove freedom of conscience protections which exempt the Little Sisters of the Poor from the Obamacare "contraceptive mandate," opening them back up to renewed lawsuits for failure to provide contraceptives to their employees.

"As much as Sleepy Joe claims to love 'nuns,' it hasn't stopped him from moving forward with plans to sue the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic religious institute for women that was founded to help care for impoverished elderly people," Ken Webster Jr. noted in an Aug. 14 op-ed for KPRC AM 950 on iHeartRadio.

The Supreme Court last month ruled in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor. The court upheld President Donald Trump's executive action offering the sisters religious freedom and conscience exemptions to the Obama-Biden “contraception mandate.”

On July 8, Biden said he was “disappointed” by the high court's decision and promised to reinstate Obama-era policies requiring the sisters to ensure access to birth control in violation of their religious beliefs.

The new campaign video "is not the first time that Biden, who has promised to enshrine the fullest application of Roe v. Wade in federal law, ensuring unlimited access to abortion in the United States, has used his Catholicism in his campaign," the Catholic News Agency noted.

In February, the Democrat candidate released a video displaying black-and-white photos of himself with various religious figures, including Pope Francis.

“Personally for me, faith, it’s all about hope and purpose and strength, and for me, my religion is just an enormous sense of solace,” Biden says in the video. “I go to Mass and I say the rosary. I find it to be incredibly comforting.”

Catholic News Agency (CNA) noted: "While Biden has repeatedly profiled his Catholicism during this election campaign, his faith has been a source of controversy over his lengthy political career, and he has endorsed policies that are contrary to Church teaching."

Shortly after Biden's election as vice president, the then-bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania rebuked Biden for his views on abortion.

“I will not tolerate any politician who claims to be a faithful Catholic who is not genuinely pro-life,” said Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton in 2008. “No Catholic politician who supports the culture of death should approach Holy Communion. I will be truly vigilant on this point.”

CNA also pointed out that, during the 2008 campaign, Biden received a letter from the then-bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, after he received Communion at a parish in the diocese. The letter reiterated the Catholic Church’s views on abortion, and the bishop offered prayers that Biden would “live by the virtue of fortitude as you proclaim your support to the Person of Christ in the most vulnerable of his members: the pre-born child.”

At the time Biden was denied Communion in South Carolina, his website stated that one of his priorities as president would be to “work to codify Roe v. Wade” into federal law, and that “his Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate the constitutional right to an abortion,” including laws requiring waiting periods, ultrasounds, and parental notification of a minor’s abortion.

Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, the highest ranking Catholic Church official in Rhode Island, tweeted on Aug. 11: “Biden-Harris. First time in awhile that the Democratic ticket hasn’t had a Catholic on it. Sad.”

Free Press International