Um, not just a Catholic problem:
"Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems."
Pope Francis, "Evangelii Gaudium" (#47)
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) June 18, 2021
Evangelical Protestants had a Donald Trump problem.[1] Now, Roman Catholics have a Joe Biden problem.[2] But not really.
The present argument is one I’ve heard about over a period of decades, in which some Catholics would deny communion to Catholic politicians who support a woman’s right to choose abortion. So of course it comes up with Biden.[3]
Ritual is really not my thing, but once I attended a baptism for the offspring of a Filipino-American coworker. At the end, Catholics, but expressly not non-Catholics, were invited to communion. So of course I watched quietly.
The significance here is that partaking of communion is what divides Catholics from non-Catholics. I was welcome to attend the baptism. I was not welcome to communion. In a hierarchically invidious monism, this is what divides the Catholic “us” from the non-Catholic “them.” Denying Biden communion might not amount to excommunication, but it’s surely at the lower end of a continuum that passes through that and on to shunning and exile. It’s harsh.
And it’s especially harsh because Biden isn’t really the target of the bishops’ animosity.
What’s really going on here is that these bishops cannot directly attack Pope Francis, whom you might recall strongly reaffirmed the Second Vatican Council,[4] though he did subsequently reaffirm the Church’s ban on same sex marriage[5] in what I continue to suspect was an attempt to avoid pushing conservative Catholics too far.[6]
So they’re attacking Biden instead.[7] This is a proxy war.
- [1]Elizabeth Bruenig, “In God’s country,” Washington Post, August 14, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/14/evangelicals-view-trump-their-protector-will-they-stand-by-him/; Rod Dreher, “Eric Metaxas’s American Apocalypse,” American Conservative, December 10, 2020, https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/eric-metaxas-trump-bloodshed-american-apocalypse-live-not-by-lies/; Eliza Griswold, “A Pennsylvania Lawmaker and the Resurgence of Christian Nationalism,” New Yorker, May 9, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/a-pennsylvania-lawmaker-and-the-resurgence-of-christian-nationalism; Sarah Jones, “White Evangelicals Made a Deal With the Devil. Now What?” New York, December 6, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/white-evangelicals-made-a-deal-with-trump-now-what.html; Peter Wehner, “Evangelicals Made a Bad Bargain With Trump,” Atlantic, October 18, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/the-evangelical-movements-bad-bargain/616760/; Julie Zauzmer and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “After Trump and Moore, some evangelicals are finding their own label too toxic to use,” Washington Post, December 14, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/after-trump-and-moore-some-evangelicals-are-finding-their-own-label-too-toxic-to-use/2017/12/14/b034034c-e020-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html↩
- [2]Michelle Boorstein, “Catholic bishops vote on controversial Communion document,” Washington Post, June 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/18/biden-catholic-president-bishops-abortion-communion/; Matt Viser, “Biden, deeply Catholic president, finds himself at odds with many U.S. bishops,” Washington Post, June 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/18/biden-catholic-president-bishops-abortion-communion/↩
- [3]Michelle Boorstein, “Catholic bishops vote on controversial Communion document,” Washington Post, June 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/18/biden-catholic-president-bishops-abortion-communion/; Matt Viser, “Biden, deeply Catholic president, finds himself at odds with many U.S. bishops,” Washington Post, June 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/18/biden-catholic-president-bishops-abortion-communion/↩
- [4]Christopher Wells, “Pope Francis: Catechesis is the echo of the Word of God,” Vatican News, January 30, 2021, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-01/pope-francis-catechesis-is-the-echo-of-the-word-of-god.html↩
- [5]Chico Harlan and Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “Pope Francis says priests cannot bless same-sex unions, dashing hopes of gay Catholics,” Washington Post, March 15, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/pope-same-sex-unions-licit/2021/03/15/8c51ee80-8581-11eb-be4a-24b89f616f2c_story.html↩
- [6]David Benfell, “In the wake of Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds’ marriage, Catholics need to get their story straight,” Not Housebroken, May 30, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/05/30/in-the-wake-of-boris-johnson-and-carrie-symonds-marriage-catholics-need-to-get-their-story-straight/↩
- [7]Matt Viser, “Biden, deeply Catholic president, finds himself at odds with many U.S. bishops,” Washington Post, June 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/18/biden-catholic-president-bishops-abortion-communion/↩