Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, leads the recession of the Mass on Ash Wednesday at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on Feb. 22, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
CNA Staff, Apr 1, 2024 / 10:50 am (CNA).
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, on Sunday asserted that President Joe Biden “picks and chooses” elements of the Catholic faith to follow, that he is “sincere” in his faith but he refuses to engage with some of the “challenging” aspects of it.
The cardinal made the remarks on the CBS news program “Face the Nation” on Easter Sunday. He appeared on the panel program with Episcopal bishop of Washington Mariann Budde.
Asked by host Ed O’Keefe about Biden’s “regular attendance [at Mass]” and his “adherence to the faith,” Gregory acknowledged that Biden — only the second Catholic president in U.S. history — is “very sincere about his faith.”
“But like a number of Catholics, he picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts,” the cardinal said.
“There is a phrase that we have used in the past, a ‘cafeteria Catholic,’ [in which] you choose that which is attractive and dismiss that which is challenging,” Gregory said.
“I would say there are things, especially in terms of the life issues, there are things that he chooses to ignore,” the prelate continued.
“The issues of life begin at the very beginning. And they conclude at natural death,” he argued. “And you can’t pick and choose. You’re either one who respects life in all of its dimensions, or you have to step aside and say, ‘I’m not pro-life.’”
Biden in his 2024 State of the Union address vowed to implement a Roe v. Wade-style national abortion rule if given the chance in a second term.
“If you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again,” Biden said.
Gregory said he would “not be at all surprised” to learn that Pope Francis has challenged Biden on the president’s embrace of pro-abortion ideology. “One of the things that I think Pope Francis does, and does extraordinarily well, is that he engages people,” the cardinal said.
“He encounters people, he doesn’t attack them. But he encounters them. And he invites them to respond to their better angels.”
Budde disputed Gregory’s remarks, arguing that it’s “possible to be a practitioner of the faith as a public leader and not require everyone that you lead in your country to be guided by all of the precepts of your faith.”
“I love the spectrum of life,” Budde claimed during the interview. “I think you can be an adherent of the spectrum of life and still respect a woman’s right to choose her reproductive health, including when to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy.”
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Phoenix, Ariz., May 1, 2019 / 02:59 pm (CNA).- An extensive fire destroyed St. Joseph Catholic Church in north Phoenix during the early morning hours of May 1. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
Barronelle Stutzman, a Christian and florist from Washington state who was sued after declining to create flower arrangements for a same-sex marriage. / Alliance Defending Freedom
Denver Newsroom, Nov 18, 2021 / 20:05 pm (CNA).
A Christian flor… […]
“What’s the Eucharist?” Kent Shi, a 25-year-old Harvard graduate student, asked that question when he attended eucharistic adoration for the first time. The answer put him on a path to conversion. / Julia Monaco | CNA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Apr 16, 2022 / 09:03 am (CNA).
One convert’s journey to Catholicism began with an invitation to an ice-cream social.
Another says he instantly believed in the Real Presence the moment someone explained what the round object was that everyone was staring at during eucharistic adoration.
For a third, the poems of T.S. Eliot — and a seemingly random encounter with a priest on a public street — led to deeper questions about truth and faith.
Their paths differed but led them to the same destination: St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they are among 31 people set to be fully initiated into the Catholic Church during the Easter vigil Mass on Saturday, April 16.
That number of initiates is a record high for St. Paul’s, a nearly century-old Romanesque-style brick church whose bell tower looms over Harvard Square.
A scheduling backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is partly responsible for the size of this year’s group of catechumens (non-baptized) and candidates (baptized non-Catholics.) But Father Patrick J. Fiorillo, the parochial vicar at St. Paul’s, believes there’s more to it than that.
“There’s definitely a significant segment of people who started thinking more deeply about their lives and faith during COVID-19,” Fiorillo said. “So, coming out of Covid has given them the occasion to take the next step and move forward.”
Fiorillo is the undergraduate chaplain for the Harvard Catholic Center, a chaplaincy based at St. Paul’s for undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard University and other academic institutions in the area. This year, 17 of the 31 initiates are Harvard students.
“Everybody assumes that, because this is the Harvard Catholic Center, that everybody here is very smart and therefore has a very highly intellectual orientation towards their faith,” Fiorillo told CNA.
“That is definitely true of some people. But I would say the majority are not here because of intellectually thinking their way into the faith. Some are. But the majority are just kind of ordinary life circumstances, just seeking, questioning the ways of the world, and just trying to get in touch with this desire on their heart for something more,” he said.
Fiorillo says welcoming converts into the Church at the Easter vigil is one of the highlights of his ministry.
“It’s an honor. It gives me hope just seeing all this new life and new faith here. So much in one place,” he said.
“When I tell other people about it, it gives them hope to hear that many young people are still converting to Catholicism, and they’re doing it in a place as secular as Cambridge.”
Prior to the Easter vigil, CNA spoke with five of St. Paul’s newest converts. Here are their stories:
‘This is what I’ve been looking for’
Katie Cabrera, a 19-year-old Harvard freshman, told CNA that she was excited to experience the “transformative power of Christ through his body and blood” at Mass for the first time at the Easter vigil.
A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, she said she was baptized as a child and comes from a family of Dominican immigrants. Her father, who grew up in an extremely impoverished area, lacked a formal education, but always kept the traditions of the Catholic faith close to him in order to persevere in difficult times.
Her father’s love for her and his Catholic faith deeply inspired Cabrera, and served as an anchor for her faith throughout her life.
Growing up, however, Cabrera attended a non-denominational church with her mother. Because she felt the church’s teachings lacked an emphasis on God’s love and mercy, Cabrera eventually left.
“Even though I Ieft, I always knew that I believed in God,” Cabrera said. “So, I was at a place where I felt kind of lost, because I always had that faith, but I didn’t know what to do with it.”
“There was a void that existed in my heart,” says Katie Cabrera, a Harvard undergraduate student. She discovered what was missing when she started to get involved with the Harvard Catholic Center. Courtesy of Katie Cabrera
After she arrived at Harvard, she accepted a friend’s invitation to attend an ice-cream social at the Harvard Catholic Center — “and that was like, sort of, how it all started,” she told CNA.
Once she was added to the email list for the center’s events, she felt a “calling” that she “really wanted to officially become Catholic” after many difficult years without a faith community.
Catholic doctrine about the sacraments was no hurdle for Cabrera, as she credits Fiorillo with explaining the faith well.
“There was a void that existed in my heart,” she said. “As soon as Father Patrick started teaching about marriage and family, theology of the body, and the sacraments, I was like, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for my whole life.’”
‘What’s the Eucharist?’
“What is that thing on the thing?”
Kent Shi laughs when he recalls how perplexed he was the first time he attended eucharistic adoration at St. Mary’s of the Assumption in Cambridge.
Someone helpfully explained that what Shi was looking at was the Eucharist displayed inside a monstrance.
“What’s the Eucharist?” he wanted to know.
For many non-Catholics considering entering the Catholic Church, the Real Presence can be a major obstacle. But Kent Shi, a Harvard graduate student, says that once the Eucharist was explained to him, he instantly believed. Julia Monaco | CNA
For many non-Catholics considering entering the Catholic Church, the Real Presence can be a major obstacle.
Not Shi. He says that once the Eucharist was explained to him that day, he instantly believed.
Shi, 25, told CNA that he considered himself an agnostic for most of his life, meaning he neither believed nor disbelieved in God.
Between his first and second years as a graduate student in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, however, he accepted Christ and started attending services at a Presbyterian church.
One day in the summer of 2021, a crucifix outside St. Paul’s that Shi says he “must have passed multiple times a week for months and never noticed” caught his eye, and deeply moved him.
Shortly after, he accepted a friend’s invitation to attend eucharistic adoration at St. Mary’s even though he “didn’t know what adoration meant.” Unaware of what he was about to walk into, Shi asked a friend what the dress code was for adoration. His friend replied, “Respectful.”
And so, respectfully dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, Shi sat in the front row with his friend, only a few feet from the monstrance. That’s when the questions began.
It wasn’t long after that encounter that Shi began attending Mass at St. Paul’s and the parish’s RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) program. Shi asked CNA readers to pray for him and his fellow RCIA classmates.
“There’s a lot of prodigal sons and daughters here, so we would very much appreciate that,” he said, “especially me.”
Poetry and art opened the door
For Loren Brown, choosing to attend a secular university like Harvard proved to be “providential.”
The 25-year-old junior from La Center, Washington, said he comes from a “lapsed” Catholic family and wasn’t baptized.
He didn’t think much about the faith until the spring semester of his freshman year, when, he says, Catholic friends of his “began to question my lack of commitment to faith.”
Later, when students were sent home to take classes virtually due to the pandemic, he had time to reflect and began to read some of the books they’d recommended to him. The poetry of T.S. Eliot (his favorite set of poems being “Four Quartets”) and the “Confessions” by St. Augustine, in particular, “pulled me towards the faith,” he said.
Brown describes his conversion as a “gradual process” which backed him into a “logical corner.” But a chance meeting with a priest also played a pivotal role.
One day in the summer of 2021 while walking back to his dormitory he encountered a man wearing a priestly collar outside St. Paul’s Church on busy Mount Auburn Street.
It was Father George Salzmann, O.S.F.S., graduate chaplain of the Harvard Catholic Center.
“He asked me how I was doing, what I was studying, and we immediately found a common interest in St. Augustine,” Brown told CNA.
“You know, there’s this great window of St. Augustine inside St. Paul’s and you should come see it,” Brown remembers the gregarious priest telling him. Salzmann wound up giving Brown a brief tour of the church, which was completed in 1923.
Harvard undergraduate student Loren Brown describes his conversion to Catholicism as a “gradual process” which backed him into a “logical corner.” But a chance meeting with a priest also played a pivotal role. Courtesy of Loren Brown
The next week, Brown found himself sitting in a pew for his first Sunday Mass at St. Paul’s. He hasn’t missed a Sunday since, a routine that ultimately led him to join the RCIA program that fall.
Brown says he now realizes that coming to Harvard was about more than majoring in education.
“What I wanted out of Harvard has completely changed,” he said. “Instead of an education that prepares me for a job or a career, I want one that forms me as a moral being and a human.”
‘I can’t do this alone. Please help me.’
Verena Kaynig-Fittkau, 42, is a German immigrant who came to the U.S. 10 years ago with her husband to do her post-doctoral research in biomedical image processing at Harvard’s engineering school.
The couple settled in Cambridge, where they had their first child. Two subsequent pregnancies ended in miscarriage, however. That second loss was overwhelming for Kaynig-Fittkau, who says she was raised as a “secular Lutheran” without any strong faith.
“It broke me and a lot of my pride and made me realize that I can’t do things by myself,” she told CNA.
She found herself on knees one Thanksgiving, pleading with God. “I can’t do this alone,” she said. “Please help me.”
She says God answered her prayer by introducing her to another mother, who she met at a playground. She was a Christian who later invited Kaynig-Fittkau to attend services at a Presbyterian church in Somerville, Massachusetts.
In that church, there was a lot of emphasis on “faith alone,” she said. But Kaynig-Fittkau, who now works for Adobe and is the mother of two girls, kept questioning if her faith was deep enough.
A YouTube video about the Eucharist by Father Mike Schmitz sent Verena Kaynig-Fittkau on a path toward converting to Catholicism. Courtesy of Verena Kaynig-Fittkau
Then one day she stumbled upon a YouTube video titled “The hour that will change your life,” in which Father Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, known for his “Bible in a Year” podcast, speaks about the Eucharist.
Intrigued, she began watching similar videos by other Catholic speakers, including Father Casey Cole, O.F.M., Bishop Robert Barron, Matt Fradd, and Scott Hahn, each of whom drew her closer and closer to the Catholic faith.
Familiar with St. Paul’s from her days as a Harvard researcher and lecturer, she decided to attend Mass there one day, and made an appointment before she left to meet with Fiorillo.
When they met, Fiorillo answered all of her questions from what she calls “a list of Protestant problems with Catholicism.” She entered the RCIA program three weeks later.
Recalling her first experience attending eucharistic adoration, she said it felt “utterly weird” to be worshiping what she describes as “this golden sun.”
A conversation with a local Jesuit priest helped her better understand the Eucharist, however. Now she finds that spending time before the Blessed Sacrament is “amazing.”
“I am really, really, really excited for the Easter vigil,” Kaynig-Fittkau said. “I can’t wait, I have a big smile on my face just thinking about it.”
The rosary brought him peace
Another catechumen at St. Paul’s this year is Kyle Richard, 37, who lives in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston and works in a technology startup company downtown.
Although he grew up in a culturally Catholic hub in Louisiana, his parents left the Catholic faith and joined a Full Gospel church. Richard said he found the church “intimidating,” which led him eventually to leave Christianity altogether.
When Richard was in his mid-twenties, his father battled pancreatic cancer. Before he died, he expressed a wish to rejoin the Catholic Church. He never did confess his sins to a priest or receive the Anointing of the Sick, Richard recalls sadly. But years later, his non-believing son would remember his father’s yearning to return to the Church.
“I kind of filed that away for a while, but I never really let it go,” he said.
While Kyle Richard’s father was dying from pancreatic cancer, he returned to the Catholic faith, which made a lasting impression on his non-believing son. Courtesy of Kyle Richard
Initially, Richard moved even farther away from the Church. He said he became an atheist who thought that Christianity was simply “something that people used to just soothe themselves.”
Years later, while going through a divorce, he had a change of heart.
Feeling he ought to give Christianity “a fair shot,” he began saying the rosary in hopes of settling his anxiety. The prayer brought him peace, and became a gateway to the Catholic faith.
Before long, he was reading the Bible on the Vatican’s website, downloading prayer apps, and meditating on scripture.
A Google search brought him to St. Paul’s. Joining the RCIA program, he feels, was a continuation of his father’s expressed desire on his deathbed more than a decade ago.
“I think he would be proud, especially because he was born on April 16th and that is the date of the Easter vigil,” he said.
Cardinal Gregory should spend more time increasing enrollment in his Church instead of expecting a man-made government to define what is right and wrong. God created His Church to define morality and He gave us the Word of God to change people’s hearts. We are not one with a man-made government—we stand alone.
Yes, I agree with you completely; but it becomes complicated and messy when we engage in the very secular and amoral (at best) political process, and hope to effect moral change. Lines become blurred as democracy expects, even demands compromises. The separation of Church and State has never been easy whenever the Church has been able to have a voice. Things are much clearer and, paradoxically easier during times of persecution.
On the most sacred day of Christians, Easter Day, after having declared Easter Day TRANSGENDER VISIBILITY DAY, On Sunday afternoon, Biden’s X account tweeted: “Today, on Transgender Day of Visibility, I have a simple message to all trans Americans: I see you. You are made in the image of God.” By contrast, DT is asking Americans to buy and read The Bible, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights… in the God Bless America Bible. He does not get a penny from the bying of this Bible. God bless DT for promoting such good things. Let God judge the other guy…
Even in a liberal news source that I would not classify as “Catholic friendly,” they have noted that 80 priests have been killed in Ukraine, by Putin’s bombs or soldiers. 80 priests seems a bit disproportionate, as if there may be some targeted killings going on. If remotely true (80 priests killed, targeted or not) why is the church not making more noise about this? And if it’s “American Christian Culture” — why are Putin’s DT Stooges in congress withholding aid to Ukraine — with “Christian DT’s” encouragement. DT doesn’t think Catholics are Christian, or what?
Cardinal Gregory is a master politician. He appears to be trying to “manage” Biden, without confrontation, so now what? Refusal of Communion? Excommunication? Or perhaps sternly worded missives that really do not lead to anything?
Cardinal Gregory will admonish Biden, without any real disciplinary action. He did not get that red hat for nothing.
My understanding is that the Episcopalian church has pretty much fallen off the cliff. Shoddy reasoning, on display here in the words of Episcopalian bishop Mariann Budde, may have something to do with that.
That’s mostly true Cleo.
The mainline US Episcopal denomination’s following a similar path to extinction as the CE. There are individual exceptions & more orthodox Anglican alternatives but as a whole it’s a bleak picture.
We had a sad situation with an historic Episcopal church. The congregation was mostly traditionally minded & after things like women clergy & SS “marriage” were okayed by their bishops they voted to align under an African Anglican diocese instead. Following that, all you know what broke out. After a lengthy legal battle the beautiful, historic church building was awarded back to the US diocese & the orthodox congregation moved out to an obscure building elsewhere.
The historic church is fairly empty on Sundays & will likely continue to see a shrinking & ageing congregation, while those old fashioned Episcopalians who were forced out are having families & attracting new members. Maybe one day they’ll return home to their old church. Who knows?
I am bowled over by the depth of Wilton Gregory! He noticed this subtle aspect of the President’s approach to Catholicism? Wow! Let’s be honest: Wilton is a “cafeteria cleric” — he knows what he should be doing as Archbishop of Washington with the myriad of “Catholics” in his diocese who promote what Vatican II called an “unspeakable crime” but he won’t. He knows what he ought to do with regard to admission to the Eucharist of these “Catholics” — but he won’t. So, I guess if he’s going to lecture on cafeteria Catholicism (which, by the way, I didn’t know was out of style as a term), takes one to know one.
I confess to a certain astonishment upon the conclusion of the interview with Cardinal Gregory. My own premonitions of Gregory had caused me to anticipate a rather more liberal position. I had entertained an anxious apprehension that His Eminence might, through a misplaced sympathy with certain contemporary currents of thought, be disinclined to offer a forthright critique of the current administration.
Thankfully, these anxieties proved unfounded. The Cardinal’s pronouncements were, I daresay, precisely what one would expect from a man of his stature, utterances seasoned with wisdom and a commendable frankness.
Now, with respect to Episcopalian Budde, her pronouncements, alas, were entirely predictable. They echoed the tenets of a theological system demonstrably at odds with the core tenets of the Christian faith. A system that diminishes the centrality and need of Christ’s sacrifice, a sacrifice freely offered for the salvation of mankind. The modern theology of “I’m okay and you’re okay.”
Not good! Something more sinister is going on here. The leftist, more accurately neo Marxist, in control are going all out to deemphasize or eliminate the American Christian culture. The Cardinal like so many Catholic hierarchy are either afraid to push back i.e. spineless or unfortunately tacitly agree. As said somewhere else “God will not be mocked”. I fear the consequences.
At times a faithful sentence or two from a considered progressive prelate seems enlightening, even hopeful. Cafeteria Catholics however are the apparent majority of church going Catholics. Does calling Biden’s Catholicism the cafeteria kind have good effect besides feeling enlightened? Like Confucianism black can be white and white black.
Our day is distant, far more in doctrinal observance than chronology from 390 AD when Saint Ambrose ordered emperor Theodosius to publicly repent for excessive cruelty. And he repented! What would we expect if Cardinal Archbishop Gregory were to impose such a sanction on Biden? Perhaps ‘malarkey’ from the president. Although I wager a lot of those cafeteria Catholics would at least spill their caffe lattes. Maybe even driven to reflection.
Your question “does calling Biden’s Catholicism ‘the cafeteria kind’ have good effects besides feeling enlightened?”
To the actual question I would have to say “not really” but I would point out that it IS important to make that point frequently enough so that people – Catholic and non-Catholic, practicing Catholic and non-practicing Catholic – don’t forget it. In addition to that – the fact that Cardinal Gregory is the one who made that point makes it that much more notable.
Archbishop Gregory correctly identified Joe Biden as a “cafeteria Catholic.” However there is a distinction to be made between the mostly anonymous Cafeteria Crowd who may or may not deeply ponder and respond to Church teachings and the highly ranked public officials like President Biden who holds his rosary in his hand while promising to reinstate Roe v. Wade. The President and his kind were blessed with the same free will as the rest of us made in the image and likeness of God.
They may use their free will to choose what is right or wrong. Biden has very publicly and strongly supported abortion. He is free (not right) to do so. However, as a so-called practicing Catholic, he is not in communion with his Church. He knows it; the bishops know it. He does not possess the formation of conscience to recuse himself from Holy Communion and the bishops do not want to suggest he should. We are in a very public stalemate. Why should any Cafeteria Catholic choose the harder road?
Why? Because if you self-excommunicate, you drink damnation! A very good reason, I would think. However we must allow the possibility of the sacrament of confession and the 70 times 70. We can never make a sure judgment of another.
Pres. Biden offers a good life lesson and WARNING for those of us who profess and attempt to live our lives under the authority of the Catholic Church (The Church that Jesus founded!). POWER can corrupt! This man, a baptized, practicing Catholic, used to vote pro-life, and this would have “OK” for all Democrats in a not-so-long-ago past. But the opportunity to be Vice-President and eventually President has caused him to turn his back on Holy Mother Church, the Bible, the Blessed Mother and all the saints, and the Triune God–and throw his support to the cause of abortion–the killing of innocent human beings! (In addition, he openly encourages sinful sexual practices by honoring the LGBTQ+ movement, although the actual LGBTQ+ Day has always been March 31, so the President did not purposely try to turn Easter into a perversity.) I do hope Catholics will recognize that the Democratic Party that was once supportive of the Catholic Church and Christianity in general is no longer safe to support. No doubt, in some towns and cities in the U.S., there are Democratic politicians who are still pro-life and pro-Christianity, but eventually they will be forced by their Party to change their attitude or get out of the Democratic Party. Catholics need to abandon this Party no matter how grateful we are for its support of the “Little Man” in the past. I can’t say that the Republican Party is much better, but at least many Republican politicians are fighting against abortion and supporting pro-life activities. God help our nation to repent of our national sins and God help every Catholic to remain true to Holy Mother Church and Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord and Savior!
Having read Cardinal Gregory’s comments, I find myself thinking of Rip Van Winkle, waking up after a 20 yr. snooze. With few exceptions the American bishops have been asleep while pro abortion “Catholic” politicians become bolder and bolder in their support of radical abortion “rights”. And, of course, these politicians trumpet their Catholic identities, jingle rosary beads and show up on Communion lines where they are generally cordially received. And when they die, a lavish Catholic funeral awaits them (Ted Kennedy, Mario Cuomo). And the snoozing goes on.
Cardinal Gregory continues to offer Communion to these politicians in Washington. They are more than cafetria Catholics. They firmly, publicly and consistently reject basic Catholic teaching and energetically promote policies directly contrary to that teaching.
Does the Cardinal or Pope Francis really believe that the solution is an encounter with Biden & Co.? to walk them to help them discern evil? These politicians know very well what they are doing to get votes, to please the hard left, to get money for their campaigns and media approval. They are driven by money, power, ambition. Will our Bishops ever wake up and proclaim to them the teaching of Christ, “Sin No More’?
If Cdl Abp Gregory wished to affirm the Way, the Truth and the Life he would have simply said you cannot be a Catholic and proselytize for murder in the womb. Otherwise he speaks something other than Truth.
Gregory doesn’t get any credit for his milktoast millimouth “cafeteria catholic” line – Call Biden out…you and the rest of the spineless bishops say nothing.
The uncorrected scandal which Biden is giving continues. A ‘cafeteria Catholic’ is no Catholic at all. Gregory participates in Biden’s crime and deviance on every day that goes by and he does not publicly acknowledge Biden’s de-facto excommunication. Isn’t it obvious that Gregory has become complicit in desecration of the Eucharist by not exercising his authority, as Biden, in his old age, draws nearer to his personal judgment. Publicly excommunicate the man, for Heaven’s sake! He may die soon and take others with him! Justice demands it for his sake and the good of others.
Not content with declaring the most important day for Christians as “transgender visibility day” and adding that “transgenders are made in the image of God,” the figure head of the present regime has banned Easter eggs with any religious symbolism from the White House’s Easter eggs event. The regime’s effort to erase Christianity is relentless. By contrast, Dt is urging us to read the Bible, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, The Pledge of Allegiance, in a Bible the sales of which will not go to his pocket but to the creator of the hit song “God Bless the USA “and the makers of this Bible (“The God Bless the USA Bible,” which includes the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc.). With all his faults, DT is on our side. The other one is against. One is promoting Christianity and patriotism; the other is trying to destroy both.
The figure head of the present regime has banned Easter eggs with any religious symbolism from the White House’s Easter eggs event. The regime’s effort to erase Christianity is relentless. He had earlier declared the most important day for Christians as “transgender visibility day” and added that “transgenders are made in the image of God,” By contrast, Dt is urging us to read the Bible, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, The Pledge of Allegiance, in a Bible the sales of which will not go to his pocket but to the creator of the hit song “God Bless the USA “and the makers of this Bible (“The God Bless the USA Bible,” which includes the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc.). With all his faults, DT is on our side. The other one is against. One is promoting Christianity and patriotism; the other is trying to destroy both.
Although I think greater public condemnation of Biden’s anti Catholic actions are warranted by Cardinal Gregory, publicly calling Biden a “cafeteria Catholic” is a good start, something no one wants to be called. I think Gregory has met with Biden several times, and has been told not to approach the altar for communion. The incident in 2019 when Biden was denied the Eucharist in South Carolina I think is not a one-off anomaly. And since then the liberal press has reported “Biden goes to Mass”, but might be giving him air over and he’s not receiving. My guess is there are many priests in DC that have told the Cardinal they are not comfortable giving Biden Communion. Also, after Biden was denied in South Carolina, shouldn’t that have been a lightning strike wake-up call to any Catholic to repent? Since then however Biden has only tripled. Down on his pro abortion, gay trans rhetoric. I do believe however he’s not receiving at Mass.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
A ‘Captain Obvious’ award for the Archbishop!!
Cardinal Gregory should spend more time increasing enrollment in his Church instead of expecting a man-made government to define what is right and wrong. God created His Church to define morality and He gave us the Word of God to change people’s hearts. We are not one with a man-made government—we stand alone.
Yes, I agree with you completely; but it becomes complicated and messy when we engage in the very secular and amoral (at best) political process, and hope to effect moral change. Lines become blurred as democracy expects, even demands compromises. The separation of Church and State has never been easy whenever the Church has been able to have a voice. Things are much clearer and, paradoxically easier during times of persecution.
On the most sacred day of Christians, Easter Day, after having declared Easter Day TRANSGENDER VISIBILITY DAY, On Sunday afternoon, Biden’s X account tweeted: “Today, on Transgender Day of Visibility, I have a simple message to all trans Americans: I see you. You are made in the image of God.” By contrast, DT is asking Americans to buy and read The Bible, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights… in the God Bless America Bible. He does not get a penny from the bying of this Bible. God bless DT for promoting such good things. Let God judge the other guy…
God will judge both on the same scale and I fear will find both severely lacking, and we can only hope for equal mercy.
Even in a liberal news source that I would not classify as “Catholic friendly,” they have noted that 80 priests have been killed in Ukraine, by Putin’s bombs or soldiers. 80 priests seems a bit disproportionate, as if there may be some targeted killings going on. If remotely true (80 priests killed, targeted or not) why is the church not making more noise about this? And if it’s “American Christian Culture” — why are Putin’s DT Stooges in congress withholding aid to Ukraine — with “Christian DT’s” encouragement. DT doesn’t think Catholics are Christian, or what?
Cardinal Gregory is a master politician. He appears to be trying to “manage” Biden, without confrontation, so now what? Refusal of Communion? Excommunication? Or perhaps sternly worded missives that really do not lead to anything?
Cardinal Gregory will admonish Biden, without any real disciplinary action. He did not get that red hat for nothing.
Is Cardinal Gregory a Cafeteria Cardinal?
My understanding is that the Episcopalian church has pretty much fallen off the cliff. Shoddy reasoning, on display here in the words of Episcopalian bishop Mariann Budde, may have something to do with that.
That’s mostly true Cleo.
The mainline US Episcopal denomination’s following a similar path to extinction as the CE. There are individual exceptions & more orthodox Anglican alternatives but as a whole it’s a bleak picture.
We had a sad situation with an historic Episcopal church. The congregation was mostly traditionally minded & after things like women clergy & SS “marriage” were okayed by their bishops they voted to align under an African Anglican diocese instead. Following that, all you know what broke out. After a lengthy legal battle the beautiful, historic church building was awarded back to the US diocese & the orthodox congregation moved out to an obscure building elsewhere.
The historic church is fairly empty on Sundays & will likely continue to see a shrinking & ageing congregation, while those old fashioned Episcopalians who were forced out are having families & attracting new members. Maybe one day they’ll return home to their old church. Who knows?
“Gregory said he would not be at all surprised to learn that Pope Francis has engaged Biden on the President’s embrace of pro-abortion ideology”.
I would – I would be VERY surprised.
I am bowled over by the depth of Wilton Gregory! He noticed this subtle aspect of the President’s approach to Catholicism? Wow! Let’s be honest: Wilton is a “cafeteria cleric” — he knows what he should be doing as Archbishop of Washington with the myriad of “Catholics” in his diocese who promote what Vatican II called an “unspeakable crime” but he won’t. He knows what he ought to do with regard to admission to the Eucharist of these “Catholics” — but he won’t. So, I guess if he’s going to lecture on cafeteria Catholicism (which, by the way, I didn’t know was out of style as a term), takes one to know one.
Maybe Wilton Gregory could tell us what Donald Wuerl has been up to these days.
I confess to a certain astonishment upon the conclusion of the interview with Cardinal Gregory. My own premonitions of Gregory had caused me to anticipate a rather more liberal position. I had entertained an anxious apprehension that His Eminence might, through a misplaced sympathy with certain contemporary currents of thought, be disinclined to offer a forthright critique of the current administration.
Thankfully, these anxieties proved unfounded. The Cardinal’s pronouncements were, I daresay, precisely what one would expect from a man of his stature, utterances seasoned with wisdom and a commendable frankness.
Now, with respect to Episcopalian Budde, her pronouncements, alas, were entirely predictable. They echoed the tenets of a theological system demonstrably at odds with the core tenets of the Christian faith. A system that diminishes the centrality and need of Christ’s sacrifice, a sacrifice freely offered for the salvation of mankind. The modern theology of “I’m okay and you’re okay.”
Not good! Something more sinister is going on here. The leftist, more accurately neo Marxist, in control are going all out to deemphasize or eliminate the American Christian culture. The Cardinal like so many Catholic hierarchy are either afraid to push back i.e. spineless or unfortunately tacitly agree. As said somewhere else “God will not be mocked”. I fear the consequences.
Curious. What is (or was) the “American Christian Culture” that the left is out to destroy? In 250 words or less?
At times a faithful sentence or two from a considered progressive prelate seems enlightening, even hopeful. Cafeteria Catholics however are the apparent majority of church going Catholics. Does calling Biden’s Catholicism the cafeteria kind have good effect besides feeling enlightened? Like Confucianism black can be white and white black.
Our day is distant, far more in doctrinal observance than chronology from 390 AD when Saint Ambrose ordered emperor Theodosius to publicly repent for excessive cruelty. And he repented! What would we expect if Cardinal Archbishop Gregory were to impose such a sanction on Biden? Perhaps ‘malarkey’ from the president. Although I wager a lot of those cafeteria Catholics would at least spill their caffe lattes. Maybe even driven to reflection.
Fr. Morello;
Your question “does calling Biden’s Catholicism ‘the cafeteria kind’ have good effects besides feeling enlightened?”
To the actual question I would have to say “not really” but I would point out that it IS important to make that point frequently enough so that people – Catholic and non-Catholic, practicing Catholic and non-practicing Catholic – don’t forget it. In addition to that – the fact that Cardinal Gregory is the one who made that point makes it that much more notable.
Archbishop Gregory correctly identified Joe Biden as a “cafeteria Catholic.” However there is a distinction to be made between the mostly anonymous Cafeteria Crowd who may or may not deeply ponder and respond to Church teachings and the highly ranked public officials like President Biden who holds his rosary in his hand while promising to reinstate Roe v. Wade. The President and his kind were blessed with the same free will as the rest of us made in the image and likeness of God.
They may use their free will to choose what is right or wrong. Biden has very publicly and strongly supported abortion. He is free (not right) to do so. However, as a so-called practicing Catholic, he is not in communion with his Church. He knows it; the bishops know it. He does not possess the formation of conscience to recuse himself from Holy Communion and the bishops do not want to suggest he should. We are in a very public stalemate. Why should any Cafeteria Catholic choose the harder road?
Why? Because if you self-excommunicate, you drink damnation! A very good reason, I would think. However we must allow the possibility of the sacrament of confession and the 70 times 70. We can never make a sure judgment of another.
It used to be called apostacy, but because certain people are more high profile than others it is excusable.
Pres. Biden offers a good life lesson and WARNING for those of us who profess and attempt to live our lives under the authority of the Catholic Church (The Church that Jesus founded!). POWER can corrupt! This man, a baptized, practicing Catholic, used to vote pro-life, and this would have “OK” for all Democrats in a not-so-long-ago past. But the opportunity to be Vice-President and eventually President has caused him to turn his back on Holy Mother Church, the Bible, the Blessed Mother and all the saints, and the Triune God–and throw his support to the cause of abortion–the killing of innocent human beings! (In addition, he openly encourages sinful sexual practices by honoring the LGBTQ+ movement, although the actual LGBTQ+ Day has always been March 31, so the President did not purposely try to turn Easter into a perversity.) I do hope Catholics will recognize that the Democratic Party that was once supportive of the Catholic Church and Christianity in general is no longer safe to support. No doubt, in some towns and cities in the U.S., there are Democratic politicians who are still pro-life and pro-Christianity, but eventually they will be forced by their Party to change their attitude or get out of the Democratic Party. Catholics need to abandon this Party no matter how grateful we are for its support of the “Little Man” in the past. I can’t say that the Republican Party is much better, but at least many Republican politicians are fighting against abortion and supporting pro-life activities. God help our nation to repent of our national sins and God help every Catholic to remain true to Holy Mother Church and Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord and Savior!
Having read Cardinal Gregory’s comments, I find myself thinking of Rip Van Winkle, waking up after a 20 yr. snooze. With few exceptions the American bishops have been asleep while pro abortion “Catholic” politicians become bolder and bolder in their support of radical abortion “rights”. And, of course, these politicians trumpet their Catholic identities, jingle rosary beads and show up on Communion lines where they are generally cordially received. And when they die, a lavish Catholic funeral awaits them (Ted Kennedy, Mario Cuomo). And the snoozing goes on.
Cardinal Gregory continues to offer Communion to these politicians in Washington. They are more than cafetria Catholics. They firmly, publicly and consistently reject basic Catholic teaching and energetically promote policies directly contrary to that teaching.
Does the Cardinal or Pope Francis really believe that the solution is an encounter with Biden & Co.? to walk them to help them discern evil? These politicians know very well what they are doing to get votes, to please the hard left, to get money for their campaigns and media approval. They are driven by money, power, ambition. Will our Bishops ever wake up and proclaim to them the teaching of Christ, “Sin No More’?
If Cdl Abp Gregory wished to affirm the Way, the Truth and the Life he would have simply said you cannot be a Catholic and proselytize for murder in the womb. Otherwise he speaks something other than Truth.
Gregory doesn’t get any credit for his milktoast millimouth “cafeteria catholic” line – Call Biden out…you and the rest of the spineless bishops say nothing.
The uncorrected scandal which Biden is giving continues. A ‘cafeteria Catholic’ is no Catholic at all. Gregory participates in Biden’s crime and deviance on every day that goes by and he does not publicly acknowledge Biden’s de-facto excommunication. Isn’t it obvious that Gregory has become complicit in desecration of the Eucharist by not exercising his authority, as Biden, in his old age, draws nearer to his personal judgment. Publicly excommunicate the man, for Heaven’s sake! He may die soon and take others with him! Justice demands it for his sake and the good of others.
Not content with declaring the most important day for Christians as “transgender visibility day” and adding that “transgenders are made in the image of God,” the figure head of the present regime has banned Easter eggs with any religious symbolism from the White House’s Easter eggs event. The regime’s effort to erase Christianity is relentless. By contrast, Dt is urging us to read the Bible, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, The Pledge of Allegiance, in a Bible the sales of which will not go to his pocket but to the creator of the hit song “God Bless the USA “and the makers of this Bible (“The God Bless the USA Bible,” which includes the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc.). With all his faults, DT is on our side. The other one is against. One is promoting Christianity and patriotism; the other is trying to destroy both.
The figure head of the present regime has banned Easter eggs with any religious symbolism from the White House’s Easter eggs event. The regime’s effort to erase Christianity is relentless. He had earlier declared the most important day for Christians as “transgender visibility day” and added that “transgenders are made in the image of God,” By contrast, Dt is urging us to read the Bible, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, The Pledge of Allegiance, in a Bible the sales of which will not go to his pocket but to the creator of the hit song “God Bless the USA “and the makers of this Bible (“The God Bless the USA Bible,” which includes the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, etc.). With all his faults, DT is on our side. The other one is against. One is promoting Christianity and patriotism; the other is trying to destroy both.
Although I think greater public condemnation of Biden’s anti Catholic actions are warranted by Cardinal Gregory, publicly calling Biden a “cafeteria Catholic” is a good start, something no one wants to be called. I think Gregory has met with Biden several times, and has been told not to approach the altar for communion. The incident in 2019 when Biden was denied the Eucharist in South Carolina I think is not a one-off anomaly. And since then the liberal press has reported “Biden goes to Mass”, but might be giving him air over and he’s not receiving. My guess is there are many priests in DC that have told the Cardinal they are not comfortable giving Biden Communion. Also, after Biden was denied in South Carolina, shouldn’t that have been a lightning strike wake-up call to any Catholic to repent? Since then however Biden has only tripled. Down on his pro abortion, gay trans rhetoric. I do believe however he’s not receiving at Mass.
Why is the head of this demonic regime not being excommunicated?
Another “Prefect” example of why the state of the State is in that state!