“Catholic” Politicians & the United States Catholic Bishops’ Inaction

The “Catholic” politicians and the inaction of the United States Catholic Bishops is the subject of this Big B File.

Ever since the 2020 election when Joe Biden was elected president, he's been portraying himself as a devout Roman Catholic when he has been anything but a devout Roman Catholic. Not only that, but he has done everything he can do to attack the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic faithful….even to the point of using the resources of the Federal Government to not only spy on but to attack those who attend Mass at a parish that uses the Mass in the Extraordinary Form (using the Missale Romanum 1962 [1962 Roman Missal]), or commonly referred to as the Old Tridentine Rite or the Traditional Latin Mass (click here to read the leaked FBI memo), and arresting pro-life Catholics and other pro-life Americans for simply praying outside of an abortion facility…the last two of which I will get to in a little bit.  He has taken policy stances and actions that completely go against Catholic teaching on a variety of moral issues!

And yet…..it seems like for the most part that the US Catholic Bishops aren’t willing to and/or are afraid to do anything about it and the Roman Catholic faithful are most definitely taking notice……which is why the folks have had such a low approval of and confidence in the U.S. Catholic Bishops as a group and this has been the case for a few years now.  Let me cite a few examples…….

On Abortion, the Catholic Bishops in the introductory note to the document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship in 2020 defined abortion as the preeminent moral issue facing Catholics, to which they said the following:

“The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, no. 22) because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed. At the same time, we cannot dismiss or ignore other serious threats to human life and dignity such as racism, the environmental crisis, poverty and the death penalty (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, no. 29).

Our efforts to protect the unborn remain as important as ever, for just as the Supreme Court may allow greater latitude for state laws restricting abortion, state legislators have passed statutes not only keeping abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy but opening the door to infanticide. Additionally, abortion contaminates many other important issues by being inserted into legislation regarding immigration, care for the poor, and health care reform….”

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship - Introductory Letter
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (October 2020)

Moreover……the Code of Canon Law, which is the law of the Catholic Church and all Catholics such as President Biden, Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi are subject to, addresses in precise detail why Catholics…..especially Catholic politicians who support, promote, and advocate for Abortion in their words and actions must be barred from receiving Communion:

Can. 915 Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.

Code of Canon Law #915

In other words, if you are support, promote, and advocate for Abortion in your words and/or actions you cannot receive communion. Let me abundantly clear in relation to Canon 915, which is this……. If you are barred from receiving communion under Canon 915, it does not mean that the person has been excommunicated, in other words, are no longer a Roman Catholic.

According to the memo itself, the “FBI Richmond assesses the increasingly observed interest of racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation through the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and source development. FBI Richmond makes this assessment with high confidence.”  In other words, the FBI compares those Roman Catholics who attend mass at a parish or Oratory that uses the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (using the 1962 Roman Missal) such as the Oratory of Saints Gregory & Augustine in Richmond Heights, MO or the St. Francis de Sales Oratory in south St. Louis City, MO as nothing more than people full of hate and domestic terrorists…..all for simply following Catholic Church teaching on culture of life issues, especially the preeminent issue of abortion….the same issue these so-called “pro-choice” politicians are supposed to be following in the first place!

President Joe Biden has done everything to not only promote abortion in America and abroad but to do everything he can to destroy those who oppose abortion and defend church teaching on the issue.  As Grace Melton, Senior Associate in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family states:

“From day one, President Biden removed the pro-life protections implemented by his predecessor. The White House then released its national gender strategy, which calls for abortion on demand. Biden officials have made countless statements in support of abortion rights. Joe Biden’s inclination is to promote abortion anywhere and everywhere, despite strong public opinion against funding abortion overseas.”

President Biden has outright refused to seriously prosecute anyone that has attacked Catholic Churches, pregnancy resource centers, and other pro-life facilities while going all out in arresting pro-life Catholics and other pro-life Americans for simply praying outside of an abortion facility. The Biden Administration is using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to try to totally destroy the lives of those who protest outside of abortion clinics….just ask Mark Houck & his family from Pennsylvania and the 7 elderly pro-life activists who Biden wants to send to federal prison for the next 11 plus years……..something that was not done under the Administrations of George W. Bush, Obama, Trump, or even the first two years of Biden Administration (via the DOJ).

Only a very few bishops have taken action against so-called “pro-choice” politicians recently.  These include San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, Springfield, IL Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City (Kansas), Sean Cardinal O'Malley of Boston, and Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, CA.  It should be noted that in the case of Bishop Vann, he first invoked Canon 915 while he was the Pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Springfield, IL…...a Decision first upheld by Bishop George Lucas (currently Archbishop of Omaha, Nebraska).

When Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone decided to enforce canon 915 against Nancy Pelosi, he received immediate support and promises to enforce Cordileone’s decree from the Bishops of the Dioceses of Oakland & Santa Rosa (California Springfield (Illinois), Lincoln (Nebraska), Baker (Oregon), Fort Worth & Tyler (Texas), Spokane (Washington State), Diocese of Green Bay & Madison (Wisconsin), and Arlington (Virginia) along with the Archdioceses of Denver (Colorado), Kansas City (Kansas), Oklahoma City (Oklahoma) & Portland (Oregon).

Many of the other U.S. Bishops are either hesitant or outright opposed to it.  These same bishops refuse to enforce the decrees ordered by bishops like San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, Springfield, IL Bishop Thomas John Paprocki and let CINOs like Nancy Pelosi, and Dick Durbin receive communion in their dioceses in direct violation of the decree issued under Canon 915.

One of those Bishops is the current head of the Washington, D.C. Archdiocese, Cardinal Wilton Gregory. According to Newsmax, Cardinal Gregory recently said the following on CBS’s Face the Nation program on this past Easter Sunday morning (March 31, 2024):

“He [Biden] does attend church regularly with great devotion. But he also steps aside some of the hot-button issues or uses the hot-button issues as a political tool, which it’s not — it is not the way I think we would want our faith to be used…...

……The issues of life begin at the very beginning, and they conclude at natural death. And you can’t pick and choose. You’re either one who respects life, and all of its dimensions, or you have to step aside and say, I’m not pro-life, I’m in one side of the equation I feel that I could support this dimension of life, but in others, I would step aside.”

“Washington Cardinal Gregory: Biden a 'Cafeteria Catholic'”
By Charlie McCarthy, Newsmax (Tuesday, April 2, 2024, 11:03 AM EDT)

And yet back in 2021 and ever since, Cardinal Wilton Gregory has basically said that he is opposed to enforcing Canon 915 against Pro-Choice Catholic politicians like President Biden because they fear it would politized the reception of communion by these pro-choice politicians.

Well…..I really hate to break it to Cardinal Gregory and the other Catholic Bishops, but that is exactly what these Catholics In Name Only (CINOs) have been doing for the last decade or more and the catholic faithful have taking notice, which is why the U.S. Catholic Bishops have had such a low approval rating from among the Roman Catholic Faithful for at least few years.

As the USCCB itself states, Roman Catholics believe that “The transformed bread and wine are truly the Body and Blood of Christ and are not merely symbols. When Christ said, “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” the bread and wine are transubstantiated. Though the bread and wine appear the same to our human faculties, they are actually the real body and blood of Jesus (Himself).”

I write this Big B File not out of anger, but out of love of the Church and the hope that the Bishops (as a group) will FINALLY take decisive actions, protect our Lord in the form of the blessed sacrament, and start to listen to the faithful once again.

Let me share with you with a plea / prayer from Cardinal Raymond Burke in 2021 when he said the following:

“I invite you to pray with me for the Church in the United States of America and in every nation, that, faithful to the mission of Christ, her Bridegroom, she will be faithful, limpid, and uncompromising in the application of can. 915, defending the sanctity of the Holy Eucharist, safeguarding the souls of Catholic politicians who would grievously violate the moral law and still present themselves to receive Holy Communion, thereby committing sacrilege, and preventing the most serious scandal caused by the failure to observe the norm of can. 915.”

Let me conclude this Big B File by asking the question many faithful Roman Catholics……including myself have been asking the Roman Catholic Bishops the last three plus years, but especially now…..What in the world is it going to take before the Catholic Bishops finally take serious action in regards to these “Pro-choice” politicians who keep giving the Church the proverbial middle finger….including enforcing Canon 915?

……And that’s the Big B Files.  Click on the comments link below and tell me what you think……I’m Bryan V. Hewing.