Should’ve Stuck with Baby Yoda
So many things annoy me lately it’s hard to pick just one, but this one really popped out at me this week. Yes, there’s “the report” and I’ll probably get to that, but I’m going hit this one today.
CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2020 / 01:40 pm MT (CNA).- The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference has announced the creation of a bishops’ working group to prepare for a Biden presidency.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t remember the USCCB having to create a working group to deal with Trump. Now that Biden’s supposedly elected, they’re forming this group to deal with him? Maybe they should have thought about that, oh, say, before the election, so they wouldn’t have to play catch-up now. Oh, sorry. They were a little too busy being obnoxious to priests and bishops who were actually doing their jobs.
Archbishop Jose Gomez told bishops Tuesday that a future President Biden, as a Catholic, would present unique challenges for the Church in the United States, especially regarding Biden policy positions at odds with Catholic doctrine.
And the award for understatement of the year goes to…
It’s not really a “unique challenge”, it has actually been seen time and time again. Somebody missed a history class or two.
“For only the second time, we are anticipating a transition to a president who professes the Catholic faith. This presents certain opportunities but also certain challenges,” Gomez said at the close of the USCCB Fall General Assembly on Nov. 17.
Please, oh please, tell us what the opportunities are? The use of “challenge” is already getting annoying. I mean, it’s like saying Christ dying on the Cross was “challenge.” The martyrs of the early church just had to deal with “challenges.” Archbishop Still Not Named Cardinal Gomez is just doing what he does: downplaying everything the Church is and is about to go through. I really don’t know him personally, but from what I have seen, his unwillingness to do anything bold is not what we need in our bishops right now. Since he’s arrived in California, he has never wanted to rock the boat. I don’t necessarily think he is a bad guy. I do think him ill-equipped to get the Church off life support, though. He just doesn’t have the will. Leading from behind ain’t gonna cut it here.
The archbishop said the bishops face “a unique moment in the history of the Church in this country.”
“The president-elect has given us reason to believe that his faith commitments will move him to support some good policies. This includes policies of immigration reform, refugees and the poor, and against racism, the death penalty, and climate change.”
Joe Biden is against racism? Since when? He’s done nothing but stoke the flames of it his entire tenure in public life. As for the rest, I’ll put Trump’s policies (save the death penalty) up against Biden’s any day. But you’re about tell us why Catholics never ever should have voted for him, yet you couldn’t quite get that out of your mouth before the election?
“He has also given us reason to believe that he will support policies that are against some fundamental values that we hold dear as Catholics. These policies include: the repeal of the Hyde Amendment and the preservation of Roe vs. Wade. Both of these policies undermine our preeminent priority of the elimination of abortion,” said Gomez.
Oh, if that were only it. Nice short list, but not even close to the horrific things he’s promised to take on.
Biden, a former two-term vice-president under Barack Obama and a career senator, maintained a position on abortion regarded by Democrats as moderate for most of his political career. Biden supported the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal tax dollars from funding abortions, while also supporting the premise of legal abortion.
Can we talk about the Hyde Amendment for a moment? It’s supposed to have been this grand check on abortions. It wasn’t, it was a shell game. Let me explain fungible and non-fungible money to you. The government money we gave was non-fungible money. It could not be moved to the abortion fund. However, and this is kind of a big one, other monies in the non-abortion funds are fungible and can be moved. So, when the non-fungible government monies come in to, say, the STD testing fund, Planned Parenthood was able to move the fungible money out of the STD testing fund to cover abortion costs. It’s as if you said something like “My husband said I couldn’t give money to Jane, so I gave it to Mary, who took her money and lent it to Jane.” Is your mind blown yet? Bottom line, we need a total ban on government money to Planned Parenthood for anything if we truly want to help. I’m sure that Hyde had good intentions, but as usual, Planned Parenthood figured out how to play the game.
But during the 2019 Democratic primary campaign, Biden dropped his long-held positions on abortion and called for the codification of Roe v. Wade in federal law, which would essentially preclude any state limitations on abortion at any point in pregnancy.
His stance, especially on partial-birth abortion, changed long before that: https://cnsnews.com/commentary/bill-donohue/year-year-breakdown-joe-bidens-abortion-flip-flop
Gomez also told the bishops that Biden has signaled his support for “the restoration of the HHS mandate, the passage of the Equality Act, and the unequal treatment of Catholic schools.”
The HHS contraceptive mandate, initiated under the Obama Administration, required employers to supply coverage for contraception, including abortifacient drugs and sterilizations, under their healthcare plans. Only narrow exemptions were granted for religious groups and conscientiously objecting employers, resulting in a series of legal battles for groups including Catholic universities and the Little Sisters of the Poor.
And Archbishop Gomez just realized this?!?!
The Trump Administration broadened religious freedom and conscience protections in the policy, but Biden has committed to reversing those protections.
The Equality Act, which stalled during the last legislative session, would add anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity to existing protections for race, color, national origin, sex, disability and religion. It has been consistently opposed by the U.S. bishops, who have warned it could be used to compel Catholic schools and institutions to, for example, grant males access to female bathrooms and changing facilities.
“These policies pose a serious threat to the common good, whenever any politician supports them. We have long opposed these policies strongly, and we will continue to do so.”
“But when politicians who profess the Catholic faith support them, there are additional problems. Among other things, it creates confusion among the faithful about what the Church actually teaches on these questions.”
Still, many of you condemned the priests and bishops who pointed out these things. “We can’t possibly tell people who to vote for!” which, of course, they weren’t. They were teaching their flocks how to vote.
Biden made his Catholic faith a centerpiece of his election campaign, releasing several videos in which he discussed his religion. Biden also quoted Pope Francis during the closing days of the campaign, despite the pope’s frequent and absolute condemnation of abortion.
Anyone ever read Mein Kampf? Hitler talked about his faith almost 20 times. So?
“This is a difficult and complex situation,” Gomez told the bishops. “In order to help us to navigate it, [the conference] will appoint a working group, chaired by Archbishop Vigneron and consisting of the chairmen of the committees responsible for the policy areas at stake, as well as the committee on doctrine and communications.”
Not a job I would want. If Biden is inaugurated on January 20th, the Catholic Church in the United States is in far deeper trouble than it is now. This is going to do nothing. If Kamala is elevated, as we all assume inevitable, she won’t even remotely try to keep up pretenses. What are you then going to do next election? Tell us you can’t tell us who to vote for again?
Gomez also noted that, although Biden’s public Catholicism and opposition to core Catholic priorities and values was a unique problem for the bishops, a committee like to the one he was creating is not completely novel.
The creation and work of the committee “follows the precedent of four years ago, when Cardinal DiNardo – then president of the conference – similarly faced a transition to a new administration threatening grave and imminent harm on critical issues,” Gomez said.
“Then as now, committees already existed to address those issues, and the goal was to emphasize our priorities and enhance collaboration.”
You cannot even compare the two administrations. Please, again, tell us all these grave issues? You thwart your own use of “preeminent”, Archbishop.
The U.S. bishops’ conference issued Nov. 7 a statement congratulating Biden and running mate Kamala Harris on their projected victory in the presidential election. The statement prompted pushback from Catholics who said it was issued prematurely, given that the Trump campaign has filed numerous legal challenges to election results, and by those who said the statement did not challenge Biden on his policies in support of legal protection and federal funding for abortion.
Darn right there was pushback. I just hope they felt it.
On Monday, Gomez said the congratulations was pro forma for the bishops’ conference; his remarks Tuesday indicated a shift in rhetoric from the conference.
This is a contested election, and your pro forma congratulations pretty much ignored the millions of babies who will be killed if Biden is elected. Just face it, you compromised them.
Gomez said additional details regarding the working group would be released shortly after the conclusion of the bishops’ meeting, which adjourned into executive session shortly after the archbishop concluded his remarks.
Can’t wait. Sigh.