Media Praise Joe Biden’s ‘Solid Catholic Faith’

Democratic presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Grace L
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Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

Mainstream media are bending over backwards to portray Joe Biden as a faithful Catholic in good standing in the hope that his flouting of basic Church teaching won’t spoil his relationship with Catholic leadership.

“Biden Brings Solid Catholic Faith to Presidency” trumpeted the Delaware State News in its frontpage headline Saturday, going on to depict Mr. Biden as a devout Catholic whose faith informs his political positions and decision-making.

Mr. Biden expressed his desire to work together with Pope Francis on the basis of “a shared belief in the dignity and equality of all humankind on issues such as caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities,” the article observes, citing a statement from the Biden-Harris team.

The Conversation stressed on November 12 that a Biden victory would provide “an opportunity to promote the diversity of Catholic social teaching rather than seeing it through the preeminent, singular lens of abortion,” one of the issues where Biden is at odds with Catholic teaching.

“In Joe Biden, Americans have a president who seemingly views policy through his Catholic faith, but in a less divisive way,” the article states.

Even prior to the election, National Public Radio (NPR) had analyzed “How Joe Biden’s Faith Shapes His Politics,” waxing over how Biden’s speeches “are woven with references to God, biblical language or the pope.”

“Biden, who carries a rosary in his pocket and attends Mass every Sunday, is known as a deeply devout person of faith,” NPR declared, and “people who know him well say his Catholic faith is central to how he sees the world.”

“Some Democrats would go so far as to say that Biden is running perhaps the most overtly devout Democratic presidential campaign since Jimmy Carter in 1976,” NPR asserted.

In Ireland, the Independent observed that Joe Biden would be the second Catholic president of the United States and goes on to describe him as “a man of deep belief” whose faith “has been both a culture and a meditation.”

Scotland’s Sunday Post also characterized Mr. Biden as “a man of deep faith” and “an honourable man of principal [sic]” who was forced to withdraw as a presidential candidate in 1987 “after it emerged he had plagiarised a speech” by Neil Kinnock.

In its article, the Delaware State News declares that Mr. Biden attended Mass the morning after Election Day at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine, a Catholic church “listed as one of three LBGTQ-friendly Catholic churches in Delaware on the website of New Ways Ministry.”

“This makes sense, as President-elect Biden’s 2012 endorsement of marriage equality predated even former President Barack Obama’s public acceptance of same-sex unions,” the article states, while acknowledging that his position is “out of line with Catholic orthodoxy.”

Despite Mr. Biden’s profession of Catholicism, however, a slight majority of Catholic voters backed President Trump, the article notes, citing a survey conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Mr. Biden’s departure from Church teaching on vital matters such as abortion, same-sex marriage, gender theory, and school choice presages a rocky relationship with Catholic leaders.

Last October, Mr. Biden stopped on the campaign trail to attend Sunday Mass at a church in Florence, South Carolina, where the pastor, Father Robert Morey, refused to give him Holy Communion.

Morey said that Biden’s support for legalized abortion contradicts the unity between “God, each other and the church.”

“Children are a gift from God, no matter the circumstances of their conception,” Daly said. “They not only have a right to life, but we as a society have a moral obligation to protect them from harm.”

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