WASHINGTON, DC, May 3 — Come June, the Committee on Doctrine for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops may potentially expose President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi as sinners in the eyes of the church. According to the Associated Press, the committee is already working on a document that would say politicians who are pro-abortion rights or who publicly advocate for abortion rights should not take communion.
Biden and Pelosi, pro-abortion activists both, have consistently “professed” their Catholic faith in public when the cameras were rolling.
“Big deal, some would say. But the point is that whether you believe it’s a sin or not or whether you even care, pretending to be a devout member of a church while rejecting its basic beliefs to get votes is definitely, at best, misleading,” says Rebecca Weber, CEO of the Association of Mature American Citizens. “The Catholic Church teaches that promoting abortion is a mortal sin. Thus, Mr. Biden and Ms. Pelosi appear to be less than sincere when they claim to be devoted members of their church. It makes you wonder why.”
Pope Benedict went so far as to tell reporters that the Mexican Catholic Church was right to threaten parliamentarians who voted to legalize abortion with ex-communication. He noted that ex-communication is not an arbitrary reaction; it “is allowed by [the Catholic Church’s] Canon Law, which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ.”
Weber points out that ordinary Catholics are obliged to follow the teachings of their faith when it comes to matters such as abortion. “What loophole permits a politician to ignore the rules? Yet, ignore them they did, taking communion whenever it was politically profitable– when the cameras were recording their sacred betrayal. In effect, they rejected their faith in a shameful way; they could simply have forgone the ritual, but they didn’t.”
Throughout the presidential campaign of 2020, Biden frequently took communion in public to show his alleged fervor as a “devout, practicing Catholic” despite his intent to champion easy access to abortion. He didn’t waste any time once he was elected, declaring that women and young girls could get abortion pills by mail without having to see a doctor in person using online telehealth visits. This from someone who spent the bulk of the past several decades promoted an anti-abortion agenda.
“Biden and Pelosi risk being publicly dishonored when the Catholic bishops meet next month because of their transgressions as Catholics. But it appears that neither of them plans to ask for forgiveness. But this is not only about religion; it’s about honesty and honor. They’d rather be shamed in public than do the right thing. In the end, the only thing we can ask of our political leadership is for them to do the right thing. This is not a personal matter of conscience; it’s a public matter of their lack of integrity, the one quality that we require of our public servants, whoever they are,” says AMAC’s Weber.
It’s interesting to point out that Biden took an anti-abortion political stance throughout most of his career. In an article by National Review senior writer David Harsanyi, he outlined President Biden’s history in support of anti-abortion legislation, which Biden suddenly abandoned.
Harsanyi pointed out that in 1976 Biden voted for the Hyde Amendment, which banned the use of federal money for abortions. A year later, he voted against letting Medicaid fund abortions. In ’81, Biden chimed in to ban the Foreign Assistance Act from allowing U.S. dollars to be used for abortions, and he voted for a law barring tax dollars to be used to promote abortions. And then, in 1982, he supported a prohibition on the use of federal funds for abortions and proposed a constitutional amendment that would overturn Roe vs. Wade.
In the ensuring years, he voted for and supported a broad-based plethora of anti-abortion laws, including legislation to save the Hyde Amendment.
And then, after decades of anti-abortion legislation under his belt, he suddenly became a cheerleader for abortions. It happened literally overnight.
As Harsanyi explained it: “June 5, 2019: Biden publicly reaffirms his 40-plus year support for the Hyde Amendment. June 6, 2019: After criticism from other Democratic Party primary candidates, Biden immediately folds, reversing 40-years of middle-of-the-road principles and “denounces” the Hyde Amendment.”