Barack Obama's chosen runningmate, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, is a Roman Catholic who would become, if elected, the first Catholic vice-president of the U.S. Like many Catholic elected officials in the U.S., he runs afoul of church teachings on abortion rights, but cites church teachings on a variety of social justice concerns. His selection is likely to rekindle the debate over whether Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should receive Communion.
Rekindle? Where has the Globe been?
Dr. Ed Peters writes:
Sen. Joseph Biden, a left-of-center politician who generally earns high marks from liberal watchdog groups, is not the extremist that Sen. Barack Obama is proving to be, and he has incomparably more experience in government than does Obama. But, while Biden's positions on public policy issues can and will be attacked and defended by Catholics (particularly, I hope, by informed lay Catholics whose expertise is the temporal order as recognized by 1983 CIC 225.2 and 227), Biden-qua-politician should not be the object of special attention by ecclesiastical leadership. Rather, Biden-qua-Catholic should be. And he will be.
Read his entire post, "About Biden, let's ask the right questions well."
Indeed. This website follows, among other things, matters of general interest as they relate to the mission of Ignatius Press. VP candidates as VP candidates have only marginal bearing on the aforementioned, especially since we are nonpartisan. However candidates, especially VP candidates qua Catholics are a subject closer to home. Biden, unfortunately, has taken stances on a number of matters at odds with teaching that Catholics are obliged to embrace. And his high profile status (higher now) means ecclesiastical authorities and ecclesial commentators have, according to their respective positions, some responsibility to address his positions and his relation to the Catholic Church, for his good and the good of others apt to be misled by his bad example.
Posted by: Mark Brumley | Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Life begins at conception; that's a basic teaching of the Church. It cannot rejected still call yourself a Catholic..
Help for the poor is also a basic teaching. It cannot be rejected and still call yourself a Catholic. However, the ways in which this may be achieved - education, welfare, encouragement of jobs, growth of small businesses, etc., etc., etc - may be debated.
You cannot pick and choose. Or as a bumper sticker so cleverly put it, "The Cafeteria is closed." Biden must accept all Catholic teaching in order to call himself Catholic! Because Biden is a public figure, his bishop needs to tell him; privately at first, then publicly, if his admonition is not accepted.
But, I'm blogging to the 'choir.' This must get beyond the 'choir.' Will it?
Posted by: laurel cobb | Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 12:33 PM
Thank you for this information on Sen. Biden and the abortion business. Well, we'll have to see what the bishops will say. I imagine Sen Obama chose Sen Biden in part because he is Catholic, and the Catholics know his position on the abortion business. It's a clever move by Sen. Obama. For a long time now, well-known Catholics have been supporting the abortion business. What will the bishops do? What will the lay Catholics do?
Posted by: Dan Deeny | Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 05:27 PM
Catholics who accept the current government policy on abortion as sound policy aren't "real" Catholics? Well, then the Catholic Church in the U.S. is not very large.
Posted by: Adam | Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 09:17 PM
Biden's voting record clearly casts him, in my opinion, as an enemy of the family.
Strong words, perhaps, but he has long been supporting:
- VAWA, which casts men as predators against women in their own homes, insists on 1st arrest policies (usually the father), use of restraining orders as tools to disenfranchise Dads of their right to custody, encourages "thought police" style of feminist indoctrination of "perps" (Dads) after arrest, etc.
- Nanny-state expansion of day care, gender-based training (female "equity" grants), and other programs while ignoring the needs of boys/young men.
The man is seeped in gender feminist ideology. Obviously I feel strongly about this, as I have tracked such issues over time. Believe what you will as an individual, but please keep your hands off my family!
Sorry for such a political rant on such a beautiful site/blog, but the truth must be spoken!
Vivat Jesus!!
Posted by: Don Schindler | Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 09:31 AM
Catholics who accept the current government policy on abortion as sound policy aren't "real" Catholics? Well, then the Catholic Church in the U.S. is not very large.
It may be that the Catholic Church in the US is not very large. Maybe, but I doubt it. More likely, it has a large number of bad Catholics. In that respect, we face nothing new.
I do not know whether Joe Biden is a heretic. He may be a formal heretic for all I know and may be using the Catholic label for a variety of ignoble reasons. He may also simply be in a state of rebellion against the Church's teaching, but not in such a way as to put himself outside the Catholic Church. Not all dissent from Catholic teaching makes the dissenter a non-Catholic.
I do know that the position Biden takes on abortion is objectively gravely sinful. That does not make him a heretic, but, all other things being equal, it does make him a bad Catholic.
Posted by: Mark Brumley | Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 10:56 AM