Bishops Try to Backpedal As Backlash to Attack on Biden Grows

[Galraedia]

Conservative U.S. bishops are learning that it is perilous to pose as being “more Catholic than the Pope.” Defying public and private warnings from the Vatican, and ignoring sentiment in the pews, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last week authorized the preparation of a doctrinal statement on the Eucharist that was widely understood as being aimed at denying access to communion by pro-choice Catholic public officials, notably the President of the United States.

Now some of the bishops are hastily trying to downplay their intentions with “nothing to see here” disclaimers, as the National Catholic Reporter noted:

“It is important to note that the bishops did not vote to implement a national policy to deny Holy Communion to politicians who reject Church teaching,” [Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore] wrote. “Rather, in light of the decline in belief and participation in the Eucharist, the bishops voted to permit their Committee on Doctrine to begin drafting a pastoral document on the Eucharist.”


“It is not disciplinary in nature, nor is it targeted at any one person or class of persons,” he added.

Nothing to see here, folks.

Unfortunately, and even comically, hard-core conservatives in and beyond the conference of bishops keep giving away the game, as the Reporter’s Michael Sean Winters sarcastically observes:

Why all the fuss? Could it be that during the spring meeting several bishops, including a committee chair, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, specifically referenced politicians and Biden during their interventions?

Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/06/bishops-backpedal-as-backlash-to-attack-on-biden-grows.html

[Thomas Hurt]

1. tsk, tsk, someone is going to have to confess about that pile of bull....

[ornotna]

37. I see what you did there

[lapfog_1]

2. Please proceed bishops

I like to see the church lose more parishioners.

When you all start taking sides in the political realm...

[DownriverDem]

39. They have taken sides

since selling their souls to the repubs to end abortions. I was a kid when Kennedy ran for President. The Priest smiled with a wink and a nod saying there is an election coming up. That was it. How far the Church has fallen.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. sputter sputt sputt.

[True Blue American]

18. :)

That describes the whole thing!

[LiberalFighter]

4. Too bad the Pope won't release them from their positions.

[brooklynite]

5. US Bishops are basically franchisees...

The Vatican lets them wear the outfit and sell the wine and crackers, but lets them say whatever foolish things they want to.

[BigmanPigman]

6. Church and State?!?!?

No wonder the Catholic Chirch isn't as popular...they seem to want to lose their sheep. Are they destroying their own church out of ego?

"Indeed, about half (52%) of all U.S. adults who were raised Catholic have left the church at some point in their lives. A significant minority of them returned, but most (four-in-ten of all those raised Catholic) have not."

"Roughly two-thirds of those who have not returned (28% of all those raised Catholic) are now ex-Catholics. These are people raised in the church who no longer consider themselves Catholic in any way. We classified the remaining 13% as “cultural Catholics” – those who now have no religion or are part of another religious tradition (other than Catholicism), but nevertheless still identify as Catholic in some way."

"Half of U.S. adults raised Catholic have left the church at some point."

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/15/half-of-u-s-adults-raised-catholic-have-left-the-church-at-some-point/

[wnylib]

31. Aptly named group for this study.

[BigmanPigman]

34. I know! It was the first thing I noticed.

[róisín_dubh]

38. I was raised in a super conservative Irish/Italian Catholic household...

I left after my parents' marriage was annulled (which was when I was 13). I made my confirmation and that was it. I will occasionally attend mass if I happen to be in a country with nice churches and it coincides with when I visit (I like the architecture and history of very old churches). And I can't say I don't believe in some of the elements of Catholicism. But I'm very much a lapsed Catholic because of the structure of the Church hierarchy and their treatment of everyone who is (or ever was) not a European dude.

[BigmanPigman]

41. Out of all my Catholic friends while growing up

only one is still practicing. All the rest are atheists instead.

[Deuxcents]

7. Maybe the collection plate

Will convince the hierarchy to stay out of politics n clean up their own house

[C_U_L8R]

8. Sanctimonious tax dodgers

They're quickly learning they don't actually have as much clout as they fancied, and that pissing people off is no way to grow a congregation.

[peggysue2]

9. I noted earlier that the Bishops were playing with fire on this one

Reap what you sow. Also discover that the current President of the United States is better thought of than you are.

[wnylib]

32. Well, not to take awayvfrom Biden,

but it's not really hard to be better than the bishops. As far as I know, Biden has never condoned the sexual abuse of children.

[gratuitous]

10. I saw an article when this trial balloon was first being floated

The conservative bishops were talking about denying the sacrament to Biden as if it was a done deal, and how great that was going to be. The article noted, correctly, that the loudmouths represented a small minority of all the bishops, and that the idea didn't stand a chance of being adopted. I don't remember who wrote it or where, but it turns out the writer was right on the money.

[dflprincess]

11. The Bishops - at least the very conservative ones -really have no idea

how much crediblity they lost by first covering up all the abuse, and then trying to cover up the cover up & playing the victims when that didn't work.

[RevBrotherThomas]

29. Speaking as a formerly devout Roman Catholic

...and now as NON-Roman clergy, I can tell you that the conservative wing of the American hierarchy does not give a fig about lost credibility and by extension, the exodus of thousands of the faithful who've simply had enough.

If a smaller more "pure" church and obedient laity is the result of their doubling down and digging in their collective heels on all "culture war" issues, then so be it. They're FINE with that. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples will never lose tax-exempt status and they know it. The USCCB is betting on it, anyway.

[msongs]

12. trump is more their style nt

[calimary]

13. This old non-practicing, ardently pro-choice Catholic is NOT impressed.

And I’m sure all those old ivory-tower men are still wondering why so many of us have left.

[notinkansas]

20. Same here.

I view the church as being entirely separate from the concept of a higher being. The church is a man made institution that is faulty to its core.

[Skittles]

14. they are so fucking arrogant they fail to recognize their own hypocrisy

it kills me that so many people believe in such nonsense

[Retrograde]

15. Is there a list of which bishops supported this?

I've found a few names mentioned, but not a complete list of who voted how.

[obamanut2012]

23. I want one, too

Like you, I haven't been able to find one.

[UTUSN]

25. Not a list here but top of it: One Opus Dei, Jose Horacio GOMEZ

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215568718

Oh-no, he says not to jump to the conclusion that he's a wingnut just because he was Opus Dei - do NOT do that !1

**********QUOTE********

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Horacio_G%C3%B3mez

José Horacio Gómez

.... During his tenure in San Antonio, Gómez earned a reputation as an orthodox leader who reversed some of the more liberal-leaning initiatives in the diocese.[12][13] He disbanded the chancery's Justice and Peace Commission after its members expressed their opposition to his support of a state constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage.[12] During the 2008 presidential election, he publicly expressed concern when St. Mary's University, the oldest Catholic university in Texas, allowed pro-abortion rights candidate Hillary Clinton to hold a campaign event on campus.[9] He also voiced concerns when another Catholic university, Our Lady of the Lake University, allowed a high-profile nun who some claim supports female ordination to be a keynote speaker at an event.[13] He welcomed Summorum Pontificum, which granted greater freedom to the Tridentine Mass, saying it would preserve "the rich heritage and legacy of the Church".[14] ....

... Gomez also said it would be wrong for observers to conclude he was a conservative because he was a priest of Opus Dei.[9]

On September 18, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Gómez one of the Synod Fathers for the 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization in October 2012.[21] ....

Gómez has also publicly criticized then-Senator Joe Biden (himself a Catholic) for his past comments on abortion.[29] Gómez wrote a statement to be released on January 20, 2021, day of Biden's inauguration, which warned that the incoming administration’s policy agenda would advance “moral evils” on several fronts, including abortion, gender, and religious liberty. The statement was blocked by the Vatican Secretariat of State hours before it was due to be released. [30] It was eventually released several hours after the Holy See released a communique from Pope Francis extending "cordial good wishes" to Biden.

**********UNQUOTE*******

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. This plan is backfiring

Link to tweet

[Hekate]

17. Not a word about the orange monster who engaged in all of the 7 Deadly Sins...

…but let a Democratic Catholic become a high-level politician and just watch them crank up the sanctimony. Joe Biden is not the first, just the latest and most egregious example.

By this time, Anno Domini 2021, with Americans fleeing the pews, parish churches and parochial schools closing, lawsuits, selling properties including nuns’ housing out from under them to pay lawsuits, and a general air of deep hurt over the betrayal of trust by the priesthood — well, you would think the US Conference of Catholic Bishops would have plenty of work to do on cleaning up their own mess without picking on Joe Biden.

The hypocrisy just reeks.

[hlthe2b]

19. They are losing younger generations in droves. This only speeds the departures.

Such fools.

[obamanut2012]

24. This just made a yung staff member leave the church

She was teetering on the edge anyway, but this was it. She is done. This is not someone who is left, either, although she voted for Biden, Gillum, and Nelson.

[lindysalsagal]

21. Public fraud admission: "in light of the decline in belief and participation in the Eucharist"

That's right, you Wizards of Oz. The curtain is being pulled back and you're being seen for what you are: Peddlers of ancient nonsense.

[Scrivener7]

36. Not even that ancient. The church never had ANY position on abortion

till sometime in the late 1800s if I recall correctly.

[twodogsbarking]

22. I won't make a bad comment about the church.

I'll let them handle it.

[zentrum]

26. No wonder the churches

...are emptying out.

[AZ8theist]

27. What is the Catholic League's position on this?

Bill Donohue always has intelligent, well-thought, interesting and entirely factual positions on everything.




Said NOBODY EVER..........

[SWBTATTReg]

28. Hypocrites. Never seemed to hear anything negative from the church when rump was the

pres. in name only. Not one word, especially on 'pu**y grabber' and worse from these so called 'preachers of the faith'.

If anything, they should have been more vocal in their opposition to rump's immigration polices, his thuggish border patrol and how they treated illegal immigrants, etc. trump treated them less than human...

Maybe these idiots need to remember how it is to be human, more humanitarian, more caring than rump and his thugs were.

[keithbvadu2]

30. The Church fought harder than this for many decades to protect and cover up their pederast priests.

The Church fought harder than this for many decades to protect and cover up their pederast priests.

[Roc2020]

33. Hypocrisy is never a good look.

[PurgedVoter]

35. Let's not judge all Catholic Bishops

That wouldn't be Christian. Let's simply say, that you cannot be a Christian and a conservative. You can only be the sort of fake try and look like a holy person hypocrite that Jesus warned us about repeatedly. Of course a fake Christian Bishop who shares a 1600 plus year history of protecting pedophilia would love Trump and hate an actual decent man. Bless the priests that put others first and like the example given by Jesus, throw the rest out of the holy places. Forgive them, but don't let those who try to rile up hatred lead the flock.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

40. Given that a number of the bishops mentioned Biden by name

As someone to be barred from the Eucharist, the statement is disingenuous at best.

I have been saying for years that I have no real problems with the Catholic faith. OTOH, I have major problems with the Catholic Church: The institutionalized misogyny, the rampant homophobia, the attitude that the only moral question which really matters is abortion, and the flat-out hypocrisy of much of the hierarchy.

[Deep State Witch]

42. And They Want People Back In Church?

The Bishops suck up to a twice-divorced serial adulterer, but want to deny a the second Catholic President communion. And yet they want people to come back to Church to get the donations flowing again? I don't think so!