National pro-life leaders from the American Life League (ALL) have denounced the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for congratulating abortion rights supporter Joe Biden, asserting the bishops are accepting of a so-called Catholic politician who is “spitting at the face of Christ.”

Judie Brown, the president of ALL, the nation’s oldest grassroots, Catholic pro-life organization, said in a statement this week:

The USCCB has affirmed what many of us have suspected for many years, and that is that most Catholic bishops have no problem with a Catholic politician spitting at the face of Christ by supporting the vile murder of the preborn. Joe Biden is such a man; he claims to be Catholic, yet he gives 100 percent support for abortion every day of the week and in every manner of brutality against the innocent. The Catholic bishops have erred, and as a Catholic, I am ashamed of them.

As Breitbart News reported, speaking on behalf of the USCCB, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said the conference was recognizing  “that Joseph R. Biden, Jr., has received enough votes to be elected the 46th President of the United States.”

“We congratulate Mr. Biden and acknowledge that he joins the late President John F. Kennedy as the second United States president to profess the Catholic faith,” Gomez added. “We also congratulate Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California, who becomes the first woman ever elected as vice president.”

“I believe that at this moment in American history, Catholics have a special duty to be peacemakers, to promote fraternity and mutual trust, and to pray for a renewed spirit of true patriotism in our country,” Gomez added:

Hugh Brown, ALL’s executive vice president said in the statement the election is still contested and “is not over.”

He added, nevertheless, Catholics should not be shocked that the bishops have congratulated Biden:

The reality of the USCCB issuing a statement of congratulations to Joe Biden should not be a surprise to anyone. The USCCB is a feckless spineless conglomerate of dead souls. They are not the descendants of the Apostles. They are what St. John Paul II referred to when he wrote of the Anti-Church. Every Catholic should shake the dust from his feet regarding the USCCB. Listen to them not. We must put our faith in Christ.

Jim Sedlak, ALL executive director and founder of its STOP Planned Parenthood (STOPP) program, said in the statement the bishops’ message demonstrates the conference is a “political entity”:

In issuing its congratulations, the USCCB calls on Catholics to COMPROMISE with regards to the law and public policy. For Catholics, the law is the Law of God as expressed in the 10 Commandments. Which commandments should we compromise on? Perhaps God really didn’t mean “Thou shalt not kill.” After all, Biden/Harris have spent all of 2020 telling us that, if elected, they would expand abortion in the United States. They also said they would restrict religious liberty. The clearest takeaway from the USCCB’s statement is the confirmation that they are now a political body issuing a politically correct statement.

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, also tweeted his deep concerns about the USCCB statement of congratulations to Biden:

“Calling on Biden/Harris to follow God’s law would have been more in line with the USCCB’s mission of aiding people to save their souls—a mission, it seems, the USCCB has sadly abandoned,” Sedlak concluded.