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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.
Continued below.
President Biden and a Catholic inflection point - Denver Catholic
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.
Continued below.
President Biden and a Catholic inflection point - Denver Catholic
