Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, who boasted during the CNN debate Sunday evening of his 100 percent rating from abortion political advocacy group NARAL, presents his “Agenda for the Catholic Community” at his campaign website.
“I’m a practicing Catholic,” Biden states in his “vision” for Catholic Americans, and adds, “I believe faith is a gift. And the first obligation we all have is, ‘Love your God,’ the second one is, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ … ‘Treat people with dignity.’ Everyone’s entitled to dignity, that’s a basic tenet in my household.”
That “dignity,” however, does not extend to the unborn in Biden’s “vision” for Catholics, though the Church makes clear its unchanging teaching in the sanctity of human life, from conception to natural death.
During his debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Biden answered his rival’s challenge regarding his flip-flopping on the issue of support for the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding provision that is applied to congressional spending bills that prohibits taxpayer funds to be used for abortions.
“[B]y the way, everybody who has been to the Congress voted for the Hyde Amendment at one point or another because it was locked in other bits,” Biden said, defending his prior votes for the Hyde Amendment, and then said:
The reason why I firmly came out opposed to the Hyde Amendment was that if we’re going to have public funding for all healthcare along the line, there is no way you could allow for there to be a requirement, that you have the Hyde Amendment – a woman who doesn’t have the money could not have coverage under health care … I did that a while ago.
[N]umber two, I would send immediately to the desk of the United States Congress when I’m elected president – if I’m elected president – a codification of Roe v Wade, amended by Casey, because I think it is a woman’s right to choose. I think it’s a woman’s opportunity to be able to make that decision. And in fact, I’ve gotten 100% rating from NARAL as well.
Biden’s latest views appear to have been influenced by the abortion lobby, rather than the Catholic church.
NARAL President Ilyse Hogue released the following statement touting her group’s prowess in having “pushed” Biden to move further left on the issue of abortion and, consequently, further away from the Church’s position:
We are proud that NARAL’s scorecard is seen as the gold standard for support for reproductive freedom. We know that our fundamental rights are under attack in unprecedented ways. Both candidates need to demonstrate their unequivocal commitment to Roe v. Wade and safeguarding abortion access. When Joe Biden fell short of that commitment, supporting the discriminatory Hyde Amendment, we pushed him along with our partners committed to reproductive justice. We will continue to push him to take a stronger stance. He must demonstrate that he will prioritize the critical issue of reproductive freedom as president.
Apparently, even actress and left-wing activist Alyssa Milano had more sway with Biden than the Church. The Atlantic reported in June 2019:
Alyssa Milano, the actress who’s become a major online presence on issues of women’s rights as well as a friend of the Biden team, spoke by phone Wednesday to Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz, telling him the candidate needed to change. More calls came in, more tough conversations.
In July, Biden finally revealed his health plan would enshrine Roe v. Wade into the Constitution and force taxpayers to fund abortion.
The Biden campaign said his health plan would build on the “progress” of Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate that offers “free preventive care including contraception” by “repealing the Hyde Amendment because health care is a right that should not be dependent on one’s zip code or income.”
As Breitbart News reported in October, Biden was denied communion at a Catholic church in South Carolina due to his ardent support for abortion on demand.
Rev. Robert E. Morey, the pastor of St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, refused to give the Eucharist to Biden during Mass.
“Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” Morey told the Florence Morning News. “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that.”
Biden’s shift radically leftward reflects that of his party.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tom Perez said in 2017 there is no room in the Democrat Party for pro-life individuals.
“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” Perez said, as HuffPost reported. “That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state”:
In an AxiosOnHBO interview with Jonathan Swan, Perez rebuked Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who commented on Perez’s stance: “It saddens me and weakens the democracy millions of Americans cherish when the party that once embraced Catholics now slams the door on us.”
“Well, actually the majority of Catholics voted for Democrats in 2016,” Perez shot back during the Axios interview when reminded of Dolan’s comment, adding:
You know, Matthew:25 is a pretty important teaching. And Matthew:25 says, you know, when you are hungry, I fed you. When you were naked, I provided you with clothing. When you were an immigrant, I welcomed you. I think one of the reasons why so many people are moving away from Donald Trump is that he’s abandoned all of those values.
Axios reported Perez said in a previous interview:
I think the challenge that I see among a lot of people that go to Donald Trump rallies, and then they will go to church on Sunday, and I’m not … I don’t know what faith they are worshipping.
Donald Trump has done more to hurt the least of us among us than just about any president I can think of:
In fact, in August, the DNC unanimously passed a resolution that embraced “religiously unaffiliated” voters and belittled Americans of faith.
The resolution proclaimed that 70 percent of “religiously unaffiliated” Americans share the values of the Democrat Party.
“Religiously unaffiliated Americans overwhelmingly share the Democratic Party’s values, with 70% voting for Democrats in 2018, 80% supporting same-sex marriage, and 61% saying immigrants make American society stronger,” the DNC stated, further defending secularists by asserting they “have often been subjected to unfair bias and exclusion in American society, particularly in the areas of politics and policymaking where assumptions of religiosity have long predominated.”
The Democrats continued by demeaning Americans of faith, referring to them as “those most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their religious views.”
Religious Americans, the DNC said, have “used those religious views with misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty,’ to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women,” and others.
Biden’s “vision” for his Catholic “agenda” continues with the directive “Build an economy where everyone comes along and we protect the ‘least of these.’”
Once again, “the least of these” does not include the vulnerable unborn.
Biden’s campaign, however, uses this section of the “agenda” to condemn Trump’s tax cuts, which actually helped middle class Americans and to vow to raise the federal minimum wage to $15.
The former vice president’s campaign also says the “Catholic” vision includes protecting the “dignity” of unions:
There used to be a basic bargain in this country that when you work hard, you were able to share in the prosperity your work helped create. It’s time to restore the dignity of work and give workers back the power to earn what they’re worth. Joe will start by strengthening unions and helping workers bargain successfully for what they deserve. His plan will check the abuse of corporate power over labor and hold corporate executives personally accountable for violations of labor laws. He will also encourage and incentivize unionization and collective bargaining.
As a “Catholic,” Biden also likely knows the Church teaches marriage is reserved solely for one man and one woman.
CNN reported Monday that, as a senator, Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law, signed by former President Bill Clinton, that stated marriage is defined as between one man and one woman.
During his debate with Sanders, however, Biden touted he supported same-sex marriage as early as 2012 – even before former President Barack Obama.
“I’m the first person to go on national television in any administration and say, ‘I supported gay marriage,'” Biden boasted.
The 2020 presidential candidate has made the radical shift leftward with the rest of his party.
As Breitbart News reported in October, Catholic League President Bill Donohue noted the Democrat Party’s hostility toward Americans of faith.
“To be specific, it is clear that none of the Democratic candidates wants to be tagged as religion-friendly,” he stated.
“There are some voices in the Democratic Party that freely admit how dangerously secular the Party has grown,” he added. “Their effort to bring sanity to their Party is commendable. But it is quite clear that they have failed.”