A few weeks after the election, the head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop José Gomez, indicated that the bishops are already beset by Biden. If Biden were a Protestant, it would not complicate matters for the bishops, but he is a baptized Catholic.
Gomez said there were some policies, such as immigration, where Biden’s “faith commitments will move him to support some good policies.” But there are other issues, such as abortion, which Gomez stressed is “our preeminent priority,” where Biden deviates sharply from Catholic teachings. To deal with this dilemma, Gomez appointed Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron to head a working task force; he will coordinate efforts among the various USCCB committees.
Among Biden’s top priorities is to codify into law the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade. In other words, Biden wants to lock in the right of a woman to abort her child at any moment of pregnancy, for any reason whatsoever, thus blunting any future court challenges.
Biden explained his stance in 2019 saying that he “personally” agrees that life begins at conception. Thus, he said, he was in agreement with the “doctrine of my church.” He failed to note that the consequences of his decision as a public official on a matter that ineluctably impacts the public cannot logically be seen as a personal one.
Biden also wants to get rid of the Hyde Amendment, thus forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions. Biden was a supporter of the Hyde Amendment when it was introduced in the 1970s, and stayed the course right up until June 2019. That was when—two months after he announced he was going to run for president—he flipped sides.
Gomez said at the bishops’ conference that these policies are going to create “confusion among the faithful about what the Church actually teaches on these questions.” How could it not?
The confusion that Gomez mentioned is heightened when we learn of a Catholic elementary school in Baltimore that is accommodating a third-grade girl in her fictional quest to identify as a boy. It is not just Biden that is contradicting Church teachings. Biden, by the way, announced at a town hall event that “on day one” he would ease all restrictions on “transitioning” to the opposite sex.
If this isn’t enough to deal with, Gomez also cited Biden’s interest in restoring the Health and Human Services mandate that requires employers, including Catholic non-profits, to pay for abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans. To put it differently, the “devout Catholic” wants to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for these life-ending drugs.
