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President Biden and a Catholic inflection point

Were he to follow through on campaign promises, then Mr. Biden would have demonstrated, as president, that he is not in full communion with the Catholic Church.

President-elect Joe Biden introduces key members of his science team at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Del., Jan. 16, 2021. (CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28).

Catholics who take this apostolic teaching seriously will understand that our first obligation toward our brother in Christ, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., is to be in Christian solidarity with him through prayer. We pray for his health, strength, and courage. We pray that he be granted the gift Solomon asked of God: wisdom in governance. We pray for his deepening conversion to Christ. Solidarity in prayer is the first duty of American Catholics toward the new president today. That is bedrock Catholicism.

There is no doubt, however, that the inauguration of President Biden, the second baptized Catholic to attain the presidency of the United States, creates an inflection point for Catholicism in America, as we strive to be a communion of disciples in mission.

Were he to follow through on campaign promises to bring the Little Sisters of the Poor to heel over the provision of contraceptives, some of them abortifacients, to their employees; were he to support federal funding of abortion, at home and internationally through U.S. foreign aid; were his administration to promote the practices of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide; if, through his Department of Health and Human Services, he were to hollow out religious freedom by repealing the federal regulations that now protect the conscience rights of Catholic doctors, nurses, and other health-care workers – then Mr. Biden would have demonstrated, as president, that he is not in full communion with the Catholic Church, because he would have deliberately facilitated what the Gospel and the Church teach are grave moral evils and injustices.

In 2020, the Catholic conversation in the United States was distorted by the high-decibel screeching of apocalyptic conspiracy theorists, on the one hand, and by dissembling about the unique gravity of the life issues and potential threats to religious freedom, on the other. Clarity about the complementary ways in which Catholics in different stations of life exercise responsibility for the moral and political health of the Republic was difficult to achieve. Perhaps, though, it is not too late to understand our respective responsibilities and their interaction.

I agree with those who argued last year that the primary responsibility for effective Catholic witness in public life rests with lay Catholics. Lay Catholics are to be salt and light in society, including politics. Lay Catholics have a baptismal responsibility to be missionary disciples, whether as citizens meeting their civic obligations or as public officials. No Catholic gets a pass on responsible citizenship.

Moreover, no Catholic public official can, with integrity, claim that Gospel truths about the right to life and religious freedom are irrelevant to his or her vote, or to his or her executive action. The responsibilities conferred by baptism and the moral truths we know by reason cannot be checked at the door of the city council chamber, the mayor’s office, the state legislature, the Congress, the governor’s mansion, or the White House.

The bishops, for their part, bear a unique responsibility before Christ the Lord for the sacramental integrity of the Church. That episcopal duty is not an internal ecclesiastical matter only; defaults in exercising it have serious public impacts. For if the U.S. bishops fail to maintain what the Latin American bishops in 2007 (including the man who would become pope in 2013) called the “eucharistic coherence” of the Church, the message is inevitably conveyed into the public space that the Church is not really serious about the gravity of certain contested issues of public policy. And that makes the work of the laity in public debate, electoral politics, and governance much more difficult.

It gives me no pleasure to note that such signals of unseriousness have been sent too often in recent decades: as when bishops failed to ensure “eucharistic coherence” by making it clear – privately if possible, publicly if necessary – that Catholic public officials who actively facilitate grave evils should not present themselves for holy communion. That default has serious effects on the spiritual well-being of Catholic officeholders. It also impedes lay efforts to promote the culture of life, and thus the health of the Republic, through legislation and legal action.

Lay responsibility for Catholic witness in public life and episcopal responsibility for the Church’s eucharistic integrity bear heavily on each other. Bishops and lay Catholics face this inflection point together.


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About George Weigel 483 Articles
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of over twenty books, including Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999), The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (2010), and The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform. His most recent books are The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020), Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse Cast of Characters, Most of Them Admirable (Ignatius, 2021), and To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II (Basic Books, 2022).

49 Comments

  1. The street thugs are in control now. Public prayers for the thugs are being offered by men who are no less street thugs. Get ready for at least four years of the Gulag. Reserve your place at the Lubyanka Hotel now.

    • Agree; good article, which I hope our Bishops are reading.
      Praying that they and the Vatican don’t throw the Little Sisters of the Poor under the bus because they are aligned with Biden on various prudential political issues.

  2. First, there is more to Biden’s agenda and worldview that opposes the teachings of the Church than just his anti-life position on those unable to defend themselves, namely the unborn and the terminally ill. His socialist platform represented by those he is placing in cabinet positions, his acceptance of transgenderism and homosexuality represented by those he is placing in cabinet positions, and his abandonment of the call to holiness to allow for godlessness and lawlessness without condemning it make it more a hypocritical and dangerous Herod than a “Catholic” who has been given the greatest office in the land.

    And, George, I’m really tired of Popes, Bishops, Priests, and Catholic leaders calling on the laity to drive change, because what it says to me is that they don’t have the guts – or maybe even the spiritual fortitude and passion for Christ – needed to drive change. As a lay person, I feel like my attempts to be salt and light are not only resisted by the godless agendas and institutions of this world, but also resisted by and countered by the leaders of the Church. Where we need a change first is in our own Church, in our own leadership. May our Lord cleanse His Church and lead us to sackcloth and ashes for our sins so that we might turn back to the Lord with the love we had at the first.

  3. Regarding the statement “the primary responsibility for effective Catholic witness in public life rests with lay Catholics,” let us remember that according to AP VoteCast, “50% of Catholics backing Trump and 49% favoring Biden.” Laity helped put Biden in office. What does that say about “lay Catholics” these days? And why would “lay Catholics” vote for someone who approves of murdering unborn children and euthanasia? Poor guidance and catechesis from the Church leaders. And why would “lay Catholics” vote for someone who approves of homosexuality, transgenderism, socialist economics, censoring free speech, gender ideology, and the Chinese Communist Party? Poor guidance and catechesis from the Church leaders. So, let’s stop putting the responsibility on “lay Catholics” to be salt and light and start calling on God to give the Church leaders who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, who themselves are salt and light, who themselves are unafraid to give their lives for the cross of Christ. Lord Jesus our Great Shepherd, please give us shepherds who, like Peter and Paul, are champions of the faith and your holy Church.

  4. Unfortunately, bishops such as Cardinals Tobin, Gregory and Cupich and Bishop McElroy have granted an imprimatur to Biden. They and the USCCB’s cowardly and partisan silence have handed the new administration a Catholic credibility that no pastoral letter, press conference or episcopal challenge will undo. The damage is done. Faithful Catholics know it and will no longer heed the hirelings. From here on, when the hirelings mug for the cameras to “challenge” Biden, the faithful will laugh in scorn.

  5. Mr. Weigel writes:

    “There is no doubt…that the inauguration of President Biden, the second baptized Catholic to attain the presidency of the United States, creates an inflection point for Catholicism in America, as we strive to be a communion of disciples in mission.”

    These words, while decorative, don’t seem to want to say much of anything.

    Inflection meaning what, some kind of change in direction, by “lay Catholics” and “Bishops”?

    How many different directions would that be?

    “For if the U.S. bishops fail to maintain … the “eucharistic coherence” of the Church, the message is inevitably conveyed into the public space that the Church is not really serious about the gravity of certain contested issues of public policy.”

    “It gives me no pleasure to note that such signals of unseriousness have been sent too often in recent decades: as when bishops failed to ensure “eucharistic coherence” by making it clear – privately if possible, publicly if necessary – that Catholic public officials who actively facilitate grave evils should not present themselves for holy communion. That default has serious effects on the spiritual well-being of Catholic officeholders. It also impedes lay efforts to promote the culture of life, and thus the health of the Republic, through legislation and legal action.”

    Is Mr. Weigel suggesting that the U.S Bishops (or for that matter the Latin American Bishops, including the Pontiff Francis) are NOT serious about “The Holy Eucharist”?

    If so, what are we turning toward? More unseriousness? Instead of being 90% unserious, we will now strive, through “solidarity” with our fellow “baptized Catholics,” to be 95% or 100% unserious?

    What does Mr. Weigel expect to happen in this drama he is alluding to?

    Haven’t the Bishops in the US Church (and elsewhere) esablished their determination to be “unserious”?

    In 2009, the US Bishops, led by their master “His-at-the-time-Eminence” McCarrick, and their then-USCCB-President “His Excellency” Wilton Gregory, publicly lied to the entire US Church about the Canon 915 letter from Cardinal Ratzinger.

    Is Mr. Weigel suggesting that the Bishops, in “then-solidarity” with the criminal sociopath McCarrick, were just 11 years ago signalling that they are not serious about The Holy Eucharist, but now, the drama will be revisted?

    Or instead, will there just be yet another ten years of essays replaying the same pretensious drama, while behaving as if “the Church” is not rotting?

  6. Canon 915 does not say, as Mr. Weigel puts it, that a public official who facilities grave evil “should not present himself for holy communion.” It says that he should “not be ADMITTED To holy communion.” The responsibility is on the bishop, and for the bishop to instruct his clergy not to give communion to those in that situation.
    Why does Mr. Weigel use the phrase “Were Biden to do” all the pro- death actions he has promised to do? Biden has an entire list that he says he will give executive orders on during his first day in office. He had been voting pro-abortion for decades.
    It seems to me that Mr. Weigel’s past anti Trumpism keeps him from fully acknowledging what the Trump alternative is going to be.

    • Crusader –

      Thank you for clearly stating the Canon 915, and correcting Mr. Weigel’s error.

      Mr. Weigel hurts his credibility by such a misstatement, whether intended or not.

      • No, Chris, you’re nitpicking! Everybody who knows this subject and the appropriate canon knows exactly what Weigel meant. It amounts to the same thing. Whether Biden presents himself (which he should not) or is not forbidden (which is should be) are two sides of the same reality. In any case, it’s more than a fair assumption that the current Archbishop of Washington will, like his two immediate predecessors, fail to enforce canon 915–or the specific guidance to the US bishops in this matter handed down during the Benedict pontificate. Remember what Cardinal Wuerl once said on the subject: “We have to teach, teach, teach.” That really worked, didn’t it!?

        • No Charles, I am certainly not nitpicking, and it is not the same thing, and I certainly know that, and so BTW does GW.

          I will answer you further, but i have to run.

        • Charles:

          I am in my mid-60s. I have carefully read and watched Catholic events and journals and internet commentary for some 25 years. Among other things, I was a paid subscriber to the print journal First Things (FT), which is now in both print and on the web. George Weigel has been with FT for at least 20 years, and worked with them in 2004.

          Mr. Weigel often warns his Catholic audiences that they need to be “serious” about their faith. I couldn’t agree more that we should be “serious.”

          Serious writers know very well that the Holy Communion issue involves 2 distinct and inter-related obligations: one obligation imposed on Bishops under Cannon 915 (the circumstances of when Bishops have a duty to refuse to admit some people to Holy Communion); and a second obligation imposed on individual Catholics to refrain from Holy Communion under Canon 916.

          In FT in 2004, the then editor, the late Fr. Neuhaus, publicly exposed the notorious lie about “the Canon 915 letter” to US Bishops, which lie was concocted by then-Cardinal McCarrick and then-Bishop Gregory (at the time head of the USCCB). In that lie, McCarrick and Gregory (obviously in the service of many of their like-minded fellow Bishops) withheld the Canon 915 letter (from Ratzinger at CDF), and publicly lied to the US Bishops at the USCCB conference in Denver, saying that the CDF agreed with McCarrick and Gregory’s opinion, that individual Bishops were under no obligation under Canon 915 to refuse Holy Communion, and were free to choose whether or not to deny Holy Communion to certain people presenting themselves to recieve for Holy Communion (such as politicians who publicly promote abortion). The letter from Ratzinger, entrusted to McCarrick, and withheld and lied about by McCarrick and Gregory, was subsequently published, showing that Ratinger specifically reminded the Bishops that under Canon 915, there is a duty of Bishops to deny Holy Communion.

          The McCarrick-Gregory lie was that Bishops could avoid their duty under Canon 915, and simply leave the Holy Communion matter to the individual, under Canon 916. I have posted an artcile from the faithful Canon lawyer Ed Peters, explaining this.

          Now we all know that Mr. Weigel is a “man of letters.” He makes his living writing words. Those who do so know full well that precision with words, or the lack thereof, leads to certain results (which can intended or unintended).

          And further, in this matter, Mr. Weigel is a Catholic writer, and was working at FT in 2004, when his own editor Fr. Neuhaus confronted McCarrick about this lie. So Mr. Weigel knows full well that the central issue regarding Holy Communion and the Bishops is their duty to withold Holy Communion under Canon 915. The issue is not about Bishops reminding individuals of their corresponding duty under Canon 916.

          Mr. Weigel knows this, and he is obscuring the issue by discussing only the individual’s obligation (which is under Canon 916). The only question left to Mr. Weigel is how can a man appeal to being “serious” when he is obscuring things that have already long been clarified by other Catholics like then-Cardinal Ratzinger in 2004, and the late Fr. Neuhaus, Mr. Weigel’s boss at FT?

          For such clarity, I share this source, Canon Lawyer Dr. Edward Peters:

          http://www.canonlaw.info/2009/03/abps-wuerl-c-916-burke-cc-915-916-on.html

  7. Joe has been in politics for 47 years…….point out where he has ever been a voice for the unborn or anything promoting the gospel. Catholic leaders are just puppets in the hands of the ungodly. How many hundreds of years have the Catholic leaders sexually abused boys, girls, women and men before they finally realized they have a “problem”? And only admitted it after they got caught…..they must be followers of Bill Clinton and not a sovereign and holy God. When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan. Proverbs 29:2
    Us Christians are in for a lot more groaning with more fake Catholic leaders in office worldwide! Thank God we have the true hope of His promises that He will right all this wrong someday. To God be the glory forever!!

  8. Saul was knocked off his horse; maybe Biden can be knocked off his high horse.

    Anyone who greets him should hold onto his hand and say, “Abortion kills a helpless human being.” Don’t say congratulations.

  9. McLuhan’s premise, the Medium is the Message, determined the perception of Trump as dangerously divisive, and Biden as benevolent Unifier. Biden’s anti Catholic anti life convictions are on record. Biden’s ascendancy, Mass at St Matthew’s presided by Archbishop Gregory communion at the Archbishop’s hand a decisive media event that will be formed as a message to convey peaceful unity between State and Church. Not simply of “bedrock Catholic” practice in respect of authority, rather much more significant unity that signals the dissolution of bedrock Catholic faith as it is meant to be practiced. “Bishops failed to ensure eucharistic coherence by making it clear that Catholic public officials who actively facilitate grave evils should not present themselves for holy communion” (G Weigel). As Weigel suggests, the responsibility of Bishop and Layman to confront. Although it has been the priest in the trenches, the list is public many have been sanctioned more often than their bishop who have taken the lead with laity in defending the faith. Other than a handful of ordinaries the USCCB have failed us all laity and presbyter miserably, and will likely respond with ‘concern’ when the gauntlet falls from Biden’s hand. Laity, as well as devoted religious like the Little Sisters nevertheless can be a decisive influence in practice of the faith and in spiritual reform of the USCCB.

  10. Mr. Weigel got off on the wrong foot by bringing up King Solomon and wisdom. King Solomon was renowned for his wisdom. Unfortunately this wisdom did not protect him from violating his relationship with God. His actions as king violated the laws that were set down in the Scriptures that governed the conduct of the kings of Israel contained in Deuteronomy 17:16-17. He also violated God’s commands given in 1 Kings 9:3-8. In a Bible study I was told that the description of King Solomon was that of a tyrant. God’s sanction was the division of his kingdom. The Protestant Revolt looks very much like what happened to King Solomon. Christianity became a divided kingdom. Clerical corruption played a major role in fueling the Protestant Revolt, just like King Solomon. Current Church leadership appears to be following King Solomon’s wayward ways.

  11. To love this man will challenge my Catholic faith.

    I have two questions on which I’d like to hear your thoughts.

    1) What exactly would be cause for excommunication today?
    2) Why is the Catholic church leadership so feeble? And then suggest we
    just need to love and forgive. We are soldiers for Christ, act like it. I’m afraid the Church leadership has lost its soul.

    • Canonically, Biden can’t be the subject of excommunication for anything that we know about his conduct or opinions. (Maybe heresy, but that would be a HUGE stretch.) Interdict–prohibiting him from Holy Communion and Anointing of the Sick (except if near death)–would be appropriate. And if this were to be the case, pray tell, who would issue the decree? The CDF? Not likely under the current pontificate. The Archbishop of Washington or the Bishop of Wilmington? Neah, no luck.

    • Tom, He may not be able to be excommunicated, but in times past he would never have been elected to office with the help of Catholics, or if he was elected despite this he would have been removed legally or by just revolt. The hierarchy would have provided the leadership in at least the first two cases. I suggest that it should have approved of or maintained its silence with regards to the third.

      I do know that the Church was silent when the people of Mexico revolted against a tyrannical and evil government during the Christero War.

    • Agree. Bishops should declare Biden has excommunicated himself from the Body of Christ and be denied all sacraments except confession. Sad that so many bishops have misled the children by their inaction and they should follow Christ explicit guidance for such men.

  12. In today’s news it announces that President-elect Biden and Vice-president elect Harris, with spouses are attending Mass to start their Inauguration Day.
    Next article is about the list of First things to be done, Reverse Pro-Life regulations.
    The Catholic Church is being used.
    I am disappointed.

  13. Is that “inflection” or infection?

    In his own way, maybe Weigel is also recalling how it was largely the laity who rescued the Church from 3rd- and 4th-century Arianism. In any event, thinking now of Pope Francis’ “field-hospital” Church, there’s a world of difference between imperfect “salt and light” and aggressive gangrene.

    At the inflection/infection point: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” (Mt 5:37).

  14. Interesting that right before Biden swore the Presidential Oath of Office a baby started crying. That didn’t happen when Trump did the same four years ago…

  15. The Vatican censored press release from our Bishops…

    January 22, 2021
    Statement on the Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as 46th President of the United States of America
    Most Reverend José H. Gomez
    Archbishop of Los Angeles,
    President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
    My prayers are with our new President and his family today.
    I am praying that God grant him wisdom and courage to lead this great nation and that God help him to meet the tests of these times, to heal the wounds caused by this pandemic, to ease our intense political and cultural divisions, and to bring people together with renewed dedication to America’s founding purposes, to be one nation under God committed to liberty and equality for all.
    Catholic bishops are not partisan players in our nation’s politics. We are pastors responsible for the souls of millions of Americans and we are advocates for the needs of all our neighbors. In every community across the country, Catholic parishes, schools, hospitals, and ministries form an essential culture of compassion and care, serving women, children, and the elderly, the poor and sick, the imprisoned, the migrant, and the marginalized, no matter what their race or religion.
    When we speak on issues in American public life, we try to guide consciences, and we offer principles. These principles are rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the social teachings of his Church. Jesus Christ revealed God’s plan of love for creation and revealed the truth about the human person, who is created in God’s image, endowed with God-given dignity, rights and responsibilities, and called to a transcendent destiny.
    Based on these truths, which are reflected in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, the bishops and Catholic faithful carry out Christ’s commandment to love God and love our neighbors by working for an America that protects human dignity, expands equality and opportunities for every person, and is open-hearted towards the suffering and weak.
    For many years now, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has tried to help Catholics and others of good will in their reflections on political issues through a publication we call Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. The most recent edition addresses a wide range of concerns. Among them: abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, immigration, racism, poverty, care for the environment, criminal justice reform, economic development, and international peace.
    On these and other issues, our duty to love and our moral principles lead us to prudential judgments and positions that do not align neatly with the political categories of left or right or the platforms of our two major political parties. We work with every President and every Congress. On some issues we find ourselves more on the side of Democrats, while on others we find ourselves standing with Republicans. Our priorities are never partisan. We are Catholics first, seeking only to follow Jesus Christ faithfully and to advance his vision for human fraternity and community.
    I look forward to working with President Biden and his administration, and the new Congress. As with every administration, there will be areas where we agree and work closely together and areas where we will have principled disagreement and strong opposition.
    Working with President Biden will be unique, however, as he is our first president in 60 years to profess the Catholic faith. In a time of growing and aggressive secularism in American culture, when religious believers face many challenges, it will be refreshing to engage with a President who clearly understands, in a deep and personal way, the importance of religious faith and institutions. Mr. Biden’s piety and personal story, his moving witness to how his faith has brought him solace in times of darkness and tragedy, his longstanding commitment to the Gospel’s priority for the poor — all of this I find hopeful and inspiring.
    At the same time, as pastors, the nation’s bishops are given the duty of proclaiming the Gospel in all its truth and power, in season and out of season, even when that teaching is inconvenient or when the Gospel’s truths run contrary to the directions of the wider society and culture. So, I must point out that our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences.
    Our commitments on issues of human sexuality and the family, as with our commitments in every other area — such as abolishing the death penalty or seeking a health care system and economy that truly serves the human person — are guided by Christ’s great commandment to love and to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, especially the most vulnerable.
    For the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the “preeminent priority.” Preeminent does not mean “only.” We have deep concerns about many threats to human life and dignity in our society. But as Pope Francis teaches, we cannot stay silent when nearly a million unborn lives are being cast aside in our country year after year through abortion.
    Abortion is a direct attack on life that also wounds the woman and undermines the family. It is not only a private matter, it raises troubling and fundamental questions of fraternity, solidarity, and inclusion in the human community. It is also a matter of social justice. We cannot ignore the reality that abortion rates are much higher among the poor and minorities, and that the procedure is regularly used to eliminate children who would be born with disabilities.
    Rather than impose further expansions of abortion and contraception, as he has promised, I am hopeful that the new President and his administration will work with the Church and others of good will. My hope is that we can begin a dialogue to address the complicated cultural and economic factors that are driving abortion and discouraging families. My hope, too, is that we can work together to finally put in place a coherent family policy in this country, one that acknowledges the crucial importance of strong marriages and parenting to the well-being of children and the stability of communities. If the President, with full respect for the Church’s religious freedom, were to engage in this conversation, it would go a long way toward restoring the civil balance and healing our country’s needs.
    President Biden’s call for national healing and unity is welcome on all levels. It is urgently needed as we confront the trauma in our country caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the social isolation that has only worsened the intense and long-simmering divisions among our fellow citizens.
    As believers, we understand that healing is a gift that we can only receive from the hand of God. We know, too, that real reconciliation requires patient listening to those who disagree with us and a willingness to forgive and move beyond desires for reprisal. Christian love calls us to love our enemies and bless those who oppose us, and to treat others with the same compassion that we want for ourselves.
    We are all under the watchful eye of God, who alone knows and can judge the intentions of our hearts. I pray that God will give our new President, and all of us, the grace to seek the common good with all sincerity.
    I entrust all our hopes and anxieties in this new moment to the tender heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ and the patroness of this exceptional nation. May she guide us in the ways of peace and obtain for us wisdom and the grace of a true patriotism and love of country.

    • “…abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, immigration, racism, poverty, care for the environment, criminal justice reform, economic development, and international peace.” Instead of virtue, we get virtue signaling, and blatantly immoral equivalencies from our “non-partisan” bishops, straight from the liberal, globalist, pro-Democrat Party playbook. There is absolutely no hope for this corrupt group of bishops. I pray only that God strikes them all down soon! We would be better off without shepherds, rather than have these Quislings who would feed us to the wolves, like Bergoglio’s betrayal of the Chinese Catholics.

    • For fifty years the bishops have convinced Catholics to vote pro-life. They dragged high school kids to Washington for the march. They’ve taken up endless collections. Now they turn on the flock, and show their true colors. Shame on them.

    • Where do I go to get back the three minutes of my life that I just wasted reading that tedious drivel? Still, that such timid, ineffective verbosity was vetoed by the Vatican for being too confrontational speaks volumes about how depraved the current leadership of the Church is. Goodness, it seems to cover all the bases near and dear to the heart of Francis – immigration (twice!), the death penalty, socialized medicine, the environment – and it is still too much.

  16. “We pray for his health, strength, and courage.”

    No. The US has just installed the most illegitimate, corrupt (he and his family are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the CCP), and objectively evil man ever (there is no other word than evil to describe someone who gleefully supports pre-pubescent trannies, nominates viciously anti-white racists to high office, promotes a mentally deranged transvestite responsible for one of the most disastrous state respsonses to Covid to be a leading figure in the national Covid policy team, and and is the most radically pro-abortion president ever – all while masquerading as a faithful Catholic, though the worst scandal there is the milquetoast modernist episcopacy that refuse to rain down anathemas and place him under interdict and excommunication).

    I pray only that his installation will help hasten the end of this corrupt regime and sick culture, that the USA may soon go the way of the USSR and other vile regimes of the past, and that his reign and that of the even more corrupt and evil Harris be short.

  17. Correction of my previous:

    The date of the Canon 915 Lie by “His Ex-Eminence” McCarrick & “His-then-Excellency”” Gregory was in June 2004.

    The story was carried in print to n First Things in 2004, where Mr. Weigel’s former editor Fr. Neuhaus called out McCarrick as a liar, in print. Surely Mr. Weigel remembers all of that?

    I will post a link to the same story at another Catholic site, in a moment.

  18. Here is a 2004 article from Phillip Lawler at Catholic Culture, explaining the 2004 Lie by “His-then- minence” the sociopath McCarrick and “His-then-Excellency” Wilton Gregory:

    https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6097

    Crusader has made the most important point, that Canon 915 states “Bishops must not admit”” to Holy Communion people committing publicly known grave evil, like abortion-politicians Biden and Pelosi,

    I can only assume that Mr. Weigel thinks that the US Bishops, and the Pontiff Francis, etc etc, are NOT serious.

    I end by wondering if Mr. Weigel is really serious, as we all understand, including Mr. Weigel, that the US Bishops are still doing the will of McCarrick and profaning Holy Communion.

  19. Weigel always sounds as if he believes himself to be a prophetic voice whenever he solemnly “reveals” what everyone else has already known for the past 50 years: that the Church – especially in America – is an empty shell of mostly apostate laymen and worthless clerics. Really powerful 1970s writing George!

  20. President Donald John Trump is still our president no matter what took place to the contrary. We the people elected him on November 3, 2020 and he remains our president. May God have mercy on all in power that broke the highest law of this republic, the Constitution of the United States of America. What we have in the White House now is a fraud and I would say most Americans agree. He is not Catholic and the bishops need to excommunicate him now.

  21. And what do I see over in the sidebar? “Report: Biden set to promptly reverse pro-life policies —Catholic News Agency.”

    “Inflection point” achieved, I’d say.

  22. He is out of communion with the Church on abortion, contraception and same-sex ‘marriage’, having performed one on his website in 2016. He has been refused Communion because of his pro-abortion stand.

    He is what many of us call a CINO – Catholic In Name Only.

  23. “Were he to follow through on campaign promises to bring the Little Sisters of the Poor to heel over the provision of contraceptives, some of them abortifacients.”
    .
    It is totally irrelevant that many contraceptives are abortafacients. They are contraceptives, and intrinsically vicious in and of themselves.

    • I think they’re basically all abortifacients under certain conditions. The variety that’s not an abortifacient is available free at many health depts. But yes, the issue here’s contraception.

  24. Thank you for the article – helped to be inspired to read up a bit , through the related texts , such as 913 –
    -http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P38.HTM
    Interesting texts dealing with preparation of children, even though as is the practice in certain Eastern Churches , permission given , respecting existing traditions for little ones ..

    St.John Paul 11 , hand picked by the Lord , to reveal to The Church , His Will as His Mercy –
    https://bookofheaven.com/who-is-luisa/divine-mercy-in-the-divine-will/

    Both devotions very much related to the Holy Eucharist ..

    Canon 915 – in stating that persons ‘should not be admitted ‘ – unlikely that the use of force to keep out such persons leading to worse evils would not have been expected of The Bride .. ? same for many , who would have fallen under automatic excommunications , such as from sins against life, in continuing to receive The Eucharist , that would have led to more hardening of hearts ..

    Pope John Paul 11 , who knew St.Padre Pio , thus likely also knew of Luisa and of the Divine Will , thus living and leading in its grace and power , including for the wordings in the Canon Law , along with the augmented Power of The Keys ..
    The related deep undercurrent of the Hidden , yet to be revealed role of the Spirit Sanctifier , for our times – ? would same have come to operate in the wording that states that persons should not be ‘ admitted ‘ – ? could those words have the effects such that for those persons, if they receive the host , that it not be consecrated , so that all persons involved are thus to be spared from further harm …..

    IIRR , in the writings of Luisa (myself just a beginner in same ) – mention of how The Lord foresaw every Sacred Host that was going to be consecrated and received , when He instituted the Last Supper .. for one who saw the coin in the mouth of the fish ,such a truth , not that far fetched ..in the Divine Will , in the related 24 Hours of Passion meditations are prayers asking for such graces , to help prevent persons from such evils .
    The Church as a whole , of course needing to continue to make efforts and prayers to avoid sacrileges ; articles such as above , the expressed heart aches of many , all being with the same good intent / prayers , ? thus being even good reparations as taught to the children at Fatima .

    May The Church continue to be blessed , in all aspects in the Divine Will , including with regard to the wording in Canon 915 – ? same as an occasion of The Church using Wisdom in The Lord , to help with the seeming impossibility – that the host received by such persons not be consecrated , that , they instead have the blessing of the ‘spiritual communion ‘ , in accordance with their disposition , more like ‘children ‘ ..
    Pope Emer. Benedict , as devotee of St.Hannibale and the latter as devotee of the 24 Hour Passion meditations , in the Divine Will – ? also in agreement with the above , in asking The Lord , for the seeming ‘impossibility ‘ to intervene , in His Mercy and Will …

    May The Lord use the controversies and all such to help deepen the desire in many in all levels , to yearn to live in the Divine Will ..
    pardon for the ignorance of theology , any related errors in the above – such has not been the intention !
    Blessings !

  25. In my state of Texas if you drive someone to the store and he gets out, robs the attendant and kills him you are as guilty of the crime as the actual perpetrator.
    Abortion is murder and if we all help pay for abortion we are we not all culpable? So what is it we are supposed to do? What I am hearing from the Pope and Bishops is “Don’t Rock the boat”. So are we we supposed to follow the lead of enlightened Catholics like Biden and Pelosi and pretend like following the social consensus is more important than the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus Christ? That’s kind of what I am hearing from the Catholic hierarchy – 1933 Germany all over again. I keep praying that Holy Spirit, please hear the plea of my family and Catholic friends, “Please help us not have to pay for the murder of the unborn”, (I ask myself if this prayer is going unheeded because it is a selfish prayer). I also ask Our Lady of Dolorosa to pray for me and my family that this sense of desperation will turn into true faith.

  26. All this talk of “coming together” and having “conversations” about the evils that are beings compounded by our anti-Catholic President Biden should all be tied together and shoved down the garbage chute of irrelevancy. It’s time for our real ” Catholic believing” Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals” to take the lead in “teaching” the true Catholic beliefs and creeds so that we lay Catholics get to know the real truths of the Catholic Church, and are not confused by this incessant back and forth that results in more confusion.
    I will pray for Biden’s soul, but not for his success as President of the country he is trying to destroy.

  27. Why are we still having this conversation?

    In the past Biden has been warned by a Bishop in his home area of Pennsylvania/Delaware NOT to present himself for Holy Communion, last year he was denied it by a courageous Priest in South Carolina, and if his spin doctors have brain one, they will make every effort to prevent him from going to a Mass celebrated by a Priest with the courage to deny him again.

    He is out of communion with the Church and with some of his first few moves he has shown he will get further and further out of communion, no matter what the bishops (small b) might say. The fact that he is betraying Catholic principles right and left is something for which he will have to answer, and for which the rest of us are suffering and will continue to suffer.

    Even the former football coach at Notre Dame knows it – Joe is a CINO.

    (Joe – stay out of San Francisco – Cordileone is NOT to be messed with.)

3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. Twenty-Five March for Life–Related Things That Caught My Eye Today (January 29, 2021) – REAL News 45
  2. Twenty-Five March for Life–Related Things That Caught My Eye Today (January 29, 2021) | Fierce Patriots
  3. Twenty-Five March for Life–Related Things That Caught My Eye Today (January 29, 2021) | All-American News

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