President Joe Biden is promoting ‘a grave moral evil’ through his support for abortion said the head of the U.S. Bishops Office for Pro-Life Activities this week.
Biden “supports legalized abortion, even to the point of wanting all Americans to fund abortion,” said Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann in a March 14 interview with the Atlantic, but he aggravates the issue by claiming to be “a devout Catholic.”
“To have a president who is an engaged Catholic, but who acts in contradiction to some of our most fundamental moral teachings — we haven’t really faced that kind of challenge before,” the archbishop said.
For Catholics, abortion is not just one more issue among many, but is the “preeminent issue of our time,” Naumann said.
“It attacks innocent human life when it’s most vulnerable. It happens within the context of the family and attacks the most precious of human relationships: that between a mother and a child,” he said. “And the sheer numbers of abortions — there’s no other issue in terms of the numbers of lives destroyed. So that’s why.”
Archbishop Naumann joins a growing list of prelates and clergy who have spoken out about the confusion Joe Biden is causing for the Church by suggesting that a person can be pro-abortion and a good Catholic.
The real pastoral problem is that by receiving Holy Communion Biden is basically saying to people, “You can be a good Catholic and do similar things,” which is simply not true, Naumann noted.
Each time we receive the Eucharist, we profess to believe “all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God,” he said.
“That’s why it becomes a point of confusion. Obviously, the president doesn’t believe what we believe about the sacredness of human life, or he wouldn’t be taking the actions that he is,” the Archbishop added. “And yet, he continues to receive the Eucharist.”
While we can’t judge his heart, “we consider the action itself a grave moral evil,” he said.
In January, Archbishop Naumann denounced President Biden’s reinstatement of taxpayer-funded abortions around the world, calling his act “grievous.”
“It is grievous that one of President Biden’s first official acts actively promotes the destruction of human lives in developing nations,” declared Naumann in a joint statement with Bishop David Malloy, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace.
“This Executive Order is antithetical to reason, violates human dignity, and is incompatible with Catholic teaching. We and our brother bishops strongly oppose this action,” the bishops stated.
The overturned Mexico City policy had “ensured U.S. taxpayer dollars only went to organizations that agreed to provide health services in a way that respected the dignity of all persons,” the bishops observed.
Last month, the director of Human Life International, Father Jerry Pokorsky, declared that Joe Biden is the “most aggressively anti-Catholic President in history” despite his outward show of piety.
“For most of his political life — from his consistent pro-abortion record to his officiating at a gay wedding in 2016 — despite his Catholic affiliation and public pious practices, Joe Biden has magnified and institutionalized countless major violations of the Ten Commandments,” Father Pokorsky wrote.
In his March 14 interview, Naumann noted that by using his authority to actively promote abortions, Biden is participating in their evil.
Biden is “formally cooperating in abortion by his actions,” Naumann said. “He intends to make abortion available and accessible, to promote it, even help pay for it. He wants to force everybody else to do this as well, even if it violates their consciences.”
President Biden is not Naumann’s parishioner, but “obviously the president impacts us all,” he noted. “I want to protect my people from being misled. His actions, right now, do mislead.”
“They do create confusion for people in terms of what the Church believes and teaches,” he said.