The Washington Post has published another glowing essay fawning over Joe Biden’s purportedly “devout” Catholic faith as a source of healing for America.
Joe Biden presents the image of “a devout, churchgoing liberal,” writes Michelle Boorstein in Tuesday’s article. “The country will soon observe for the first time a president who goes to Mass every Sunday, plus on Catholic feast days, and sprinkles conversation casually with scripture, religious hymns and references to religious history.”
Ms. Boorstein notes, on the other hand, that millions of U.S. Catholics “don’t even see him as a legitimate Catholic at all, because of his support for abortion access and LGBT equality.”
Nonetheless, “Biden could redefine what it means to be a Catholic in good standing,” Boorstein proposes hopefully, since his version of Catholicism is “less tied to doctrine.”
Catholic pro-life leaders have denounced the Catholic Bishops Conference for congratulating abortion supporter Joe Biden. https://t.co/8kCwu07CJM
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 17, 2020
“Millions of Americans hungry for a faith focused on healing and inclusion will embrace it — especially on the left, where believers have felt trampled by the religious right into nonexistence since the 1970s,” she states.
Boorstein quotes Villanova University professor Massimo Faggioli in suggesting that Biden’s willingness to thumb his nose at Catholic teaching is “unapologetic.”
“Joe Biden is a Catholic in the public square who doesn’t take lectures from bishops about what being Catholic is about. This is totally new,” Faggioli said.
Boorstein’s hagiographic essay paints Mr. Biden as a healer, while trashing President Trump as a serial executioner with a “laisser-faire” approach to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms. Boorstein’s puff piece joins a growing list of left-wing panegyrics to Mr. Biden’s Catholicism that have appeared on CNN, in the Jesuit-run America magazine, NPR, and again in the Washington Post, among others.
The central thrust of all of these essays has been to downplay the importance of Catholic teaching in favor of religious sentiment and symbolism. A willingness to flout Catholic doctrine — even on the most serious issues — has been depicted as a mark of strength, rather than of rebellion and disunity.
Last December, Catholic League president Bill Donohue called out the left for its hypocrisy in gushing over Joe Biden’s supposedly “devout” Catholic faith while pillorying those who actually embrace Church teaching.
It is okay “for Catholics to bludgeon the Little Sisters of the Poor provided they carry a rosary,” Dr. Donohue noted in his essay pointing out that for the mainstream media, the only good Catholic is a bad Catholic.
Joe Biden’s rejection of key Church teachings highlights divisions between practicing and nominal Catholics, the Catholic League notes. https://t.co/Bnari9DqR6
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 22, 2020
What all the left-wing media love about Biden’s particular strain of Catholicism is his unapologetic rejection of the Church’s core moral teachings about life and marriage and religious freedom while maintaining all the external trappings of the faith, Donohue suggested.
“Biden rejects the teachings of the Catholic Church on abortion — he has become an extremist — marriage (he even officiated at a gay wedding), foster care, gender ideology, healthcare, contraception, sterilization, religious liberty, and school choice,” Donohue observes, all of which makes him a darling to the mainstream media.
Donohue underscored the sharp contrast between the media’s sycophantic treatment of Biden’s faith with their harsh attacks on the Catholic faith of another public figure: Amy Coney Barrett.
In dealing with Justice Barrett, a practicing Catholic with seven children, the media were “anything but kind,” Donohue notes. “Indeed, her ‘devoutness’ was a source of discontent, even rage in some quarters.”
The difference is that Barrett actually believes and affirms what her Church teaches, while Biden only accepts those teachings that happen to coincide with the platform of the Democrat Party, Donohue noted.
“The moral of the story is plain: It is perfectly fine to be a Catholic public official just so long as he or she rejects the teachings of the Church on matters of public policy, even when those policies are life and death issues,” Donohue concluded.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.