Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia, firmly condemned Joe Biden’s stance on abortion in some of the strongest language from a church leader yet.
The Catholic church has been accepted in American society, Chaput says, but at the price of being “bleached out by the culture, rather than leaving it in a fertile way with a distinctive Catholic witness. Mr. Biden’s apostasy on the abortion issue is only the most repugnant example.”
As president, Biden has repeatedly called attention to the fact that he is only the second Catholic to sit in the Oval Office.
Yet, despite being a self-proclaimed “good Catholic,” Biden has firmly stood diametrically opposed to many of the church’s most fundamental moral teachings, most of all on abortion.
Related: Biden Promotes Killing of Babies Through Abortion on Ash Wednesday
In a recent speech at a Democratic National Committee event, Biden promised making unlimited abortion without restriction through all nine months of pregnancy his top priority.
“The Court got Roe right nearly fifty years ago, and I believe Congress should codify Roe once and for all… The first bill I will send to Congress will be to codify Roe v. Wade. And when Congress passes it I’ll sign it in January, fifty years after when Roe was first decided the law of the land.”
By “codifying Roe,” Biden and the Democrats intend to ban any and all restrictions on abortion, overruling all state Pro-Life laws, and enshrining unlimited abortion into national law.
Though they claim to stand on majority support, Democrats’ abortion position is actually extremely unpopular. A recent poll by the RMC Research/America First Policy Institute found that 60% of American women actually support a national 15 week ban on abortion. While 81% of Americans believe abortion should be illegal in the third trimester and only 19% of Americans support unlimited abortion without restriction according to a poll by Gallup.
Even still, Biden has been an outspoken advocate for unlimited abortion, going so far as to claim (falsely) that the Catholic church supports abortion in certain cases.
Attacking Pro-Life laws that defend Life, including the lives of babies conceived in rape and incest, Biden lashed out, “think about what these guys are talking about, no exceptions — rape, incest — no exceptions, regardless of age. I happen to be a practicing Roman Catholic. My church doesn’t even make that argument now.”
Yet, according to Archbishop Chaput, Biden’s abortion positions amount to apostasy (the denial/rejection of God and the faith) and place him outside the church community.
“When you freely break communion with the Church of Jesus Christ and her teachings, you can’t pretend to be in communion when it’s convenient, that’s a form of lying,” Chaput stated emphatically.
Much controversy has arisen within the Catholic church on whether pro-abortion politicians, like Biden, who unequivocally advocate for the killing of preborn babies through abortion, should be allowed to receive communion. Reception of communion is considered by Catholics to be the highest form of worship and participation in the Catholic faith, reserved only for those “in the state of grace,” that is free of grave sin.
Chaput very clearly stated his position in the controversy. “Mr. Biden is not in communion with the Catholic faith,” he stated clearly, continuing, “any priest who now provides communion to the president participates in his hypocrisy.”
Responding to media claims that denying Biden communion somehow “politicizes communion,” Chaput stated that “in a sane world, (Biden’s) unique public leadership would make — or should make — public consequences unavoidable.”
Catholic teaching leaves no room for doubt on the morality of abortion. “Abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law… The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2271, 2273).
Yet, many of the nation’s most vehement abortion advocates are self-professed Catholics. Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra are just a few of the nation’s leading abortion activists who also claim to be Catholic.
“We’ve forgotten who we are as a believing people,” Archbishop Chaput says, “This is both a cause and a symptom of today’s lukewarm Catholic spirit, in our nation’s culture and within the Church herself. But that can change, and it needs to change.”