Action Alert!

Biden denounces ‘hate’—and Catholic teaching

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 14, 2022

When President Biden boasts that he has struck “a blow against hate in all its forms,” is he denouncing the Catholic Church—of which he claims to be a faithful member?

The “Respect Marriage” act, which the President signed into law today, requires individuals and institutions to acknowledge as fact something that the Catholic Church teaches is impossible: that two men or two women can be united in marriage. Of course the Church is not alone in rejecting the possibility of same-sex “marriage;” countless generations of people, of many different faiths, have taken the same common-sense stand. But for now I am concerned with the anomaly that the President, while insisting that he is a believing Catholic, clearly does not believe what the Church teaches about marriage.

In his disjointed remarks, President Biden went on to say that opposition to same-sex marriage is motivated by the same “hate” that causes opposition to gender-reassignment surgery. So he launched into an angry denunciation of “callous, cynical laws introduced in the states targeting transgender children, terrifying families and criminalizing doctors who give children the care they need.” Thus the President condemned those who oppose the mutilation of the sexual organs of confused children. Once again the targets of his angry outburst undeniably include the Catholic Church.

“Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, they’re all connected,” Biden said. So I suppose, by his lights, the Catholic Church is guilty of racism and antisemitism as well. Since he believes that the Church teaches hate, I wonder why, on Sunday morning, he will turn up at a Catholic church, and affirm his allegiance to “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”

And I wonder—not for the first time, surely—why the Archbishop of Washington, DC, does not announce what should be evident to all: that with his identification of Catholic teaching as “hate,” Biden has separated himself from the Catholic communion.

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

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  • Posted by: ewaughok - Dec. 18, 2022 1:23 AM ET USA

    “Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, they’re all connected,” as ways the Democrat party uses to browbeat the American public with vile, unfounded, accusations. Other than that they have no commonality. His Eminence, the Wilt, is just toeing the line behind the Holy Father. Bergoglio has met with Biden more than once and never offered the slightest criticism. On the other hand, he attacked Trump without ever having talked with him.

  • Posted by: CorneliusG - Dec. 16, 2022 5:28 PM ET USA

    In expecting consistency and integrity from "The Wilt" you expect too much. In fact, the entire Episcopacy is a phalanx of cowards and modernists hell-bent on the annihilation of the Catholic faith.

  • Posted by: rghatt6599 - Dec. 15, 2022 6:54 PM ET USA

    The archbishop of Washington is in happy communion with Biden and Democrat party. His priorities and talking points line up neatly with those of the president’s party. His temper tantrum in 2020 when President Trump dared to enter a Catholic shrine was telling. There has been no overt anger or righteous outburst at anything Biden has said or done. The archbishop will not contradict Biden’s claim that he is a devout practicing Catholic in good standing with his Church.

  • Posted by: chapman18668 - Dec. 15, 2022 10:29 AM ET USA

    We have an Archbishop of DC??? Goodness, for all of the silence, I thought it was an open see still needing someone to be named.

  • Posted by: feedback - Dec. 14, 2022 10:30 PM ET USA

    At first glance the "RM" act doesn't make much sense: accommodating desires of about 1% of American population, while exposing everyone else to state-sanctioned violation of their religious liberty. So, perhaps that was the whole point: to legalize violation of religious liberty. In 2008 Obama badmouthed those those who "cling to their religion." In 2015 H. Clinton said: "Deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed." The "RM" act is anti Constitutional.