Biden is Not a Practicing Catholic

By Father Kevin M Cusick

Joe Biden is not a practicing Catholic. And practicing Catholics cannot vote for Biden for President in good conscience.

A Philadelphia basement blogger, among others, has pronounced negatively, as usual, on a recent tweet by Bishop Tobin calling Biden’s Catholicity into question after he announced his fellow Planned Parenthood ally Kamala Harris as the pick for VP.

Bishop Tobin tweeted, “Biden-Harris. First time in a while that the Democratic ticket hasn’t had a Catholic on it. Sad.”

The blogger subtweeted Bishop Tobin’s remark with this rejoinder:

“While the sentiment expressed by Providence bishop – one of the few US prelates who’s disclosed his party registration – is popular with conservatives, a hierarch has no authority to judge the status of a member of the faithful outside his jurisdiction.”

Wrong again, basement blogger.

Yes, Bishop Tobin could have avoided the obvious difficulty of making it sound like he’s calling Biden’s baptismal status into question. Those without a contrarian agenda, however, are willing to fill in the blanks and give Bishop Tobin credit for his point, which is that being Catholic does not entail merely being baptized and confirmed. It also doesn’t mean going through the motions of receiving Communion.

No, being Catholic means in fact abstaining from Communion if one is in need of making public reparation for public scandal against the faith and morals of the Church. This in addition to, of course, sacramental Confession.

Bring Catholic means full assent with the intellect and will to all the truths the Church teaches in matters of faith and morals. This Biden very publicly and with great frequency has not done for many years.

Whether or not a baptized Catholic has been absolved through sacramental Confession we cannot know unless the individual concerned chooses to speak about it. It is not of this matter of the internal forum that Tobin speaks.

Biden’s long-term advocacy of abortion on demand, his connivance in a number of evil choices as vice president during the Obama presidency, and his officiating over a same-sex “wedding” at the vice presidential residence are just some of the reasons that Biden is not a Catholic in the most fundamental sense.

Calling oneself Catholic is not the same as being Catholic. In politics, however, mercurial superficiality is the stock in trade.

Take Kamala Harris for example, who supported women making sexual misconduct claims against Biden until she was offered an opportunity to gain power as potential vice president. Now those charges don’t seem to be an issue at all.

Bishop Tobin has a duty to speak out in matters that affect his people and their moral choices. A national election involves his people as well as those of every other bishop.

It is well known that a majority of US bishops are Democrats.Hence the blogger referred to above, who panders to the bishops, expresses obvious supercilious disgust when comes to “conservatives”. If the blogger is liberal or progressive, also in betrayal of the Catholic Faith, it would not surprise.

Many Catholics were traditionally Democrats from the days of Kennedy. But many, however, did not leave the party when the party left them.

Catholics who have let Church teaching guide them in matters of the sanctity of life and the unchanging nature of marriage between one man and one woman, realized they could no longer affiliate with the Democratic party because the party left them with no other choice.

This is not to say that the Republican party gets a pass. No: what it means is that some Catholics have made the decision to now register as Independent, if they affiliate at all.

The Catholic blogosphere is overrun with Democrat shills who play clever games like confusing the apples of abortion with the oranges of capital punishment. False prophets and wolves in sheep’s clothing exploit the poor general state of catechesis to spread lies.

So many Catholics today fall for evil peddled by wolves in sheep’s clothing, false prophets, simply because they are unable or unwilling to make distinctions.

 

There is a distinction in Catholic teaching between abortion and capital punishment. It’s based on truth. Truth doesn’t change, therefore no human person is able to simply gloss over that distinction without departing from the fullness of truth and, at the same time, taking a step further away from fullness of life in Jesus Christ.

 

We can agree that society’s right to self defense is not inadmissible while insisting that imprisonment be used in worst cases rather than capital punishment. This while teaching that “legally” killing an innocent unborn child is, unlike capital punishment, always an abominable crime and mortal sin.

 

Such confusion between these different moral cases is cleverly weaponized by political operatives to garner votes for evil men.

So-called “progressive” and “enlightened” views leave certain bloggers and their fellow travelers feeling superior to the rest of men. What they in fact do is merely ape the opinions and agenda of the enemies of the Church and of Christ. Who’s not Catholic now?

 

Interesting how a certain segment of the Catholic commentariat is ever allergic to firm and muscular Catholic teaching, particularly in matters of faith and morals.

 

It is Bishop Tobin’s God-given job, and that of every bishop, to guide their Catholic people in making morally upright choices. Tobin is one of the few bishops who takes his job seriously enough to do it while risking social opprobrium.

Long gone are the days when popularity was assumed a part of the episcopal job description. A national election involves the people in every diocese of the country. Bishop Tobin and every bishop are therefore called upon to make judgments and offer guidance for the upcoming election when it involves avoiding evil and cooperation in scandal against the Faith. This does not jeopardize the Church’s tax-exempt status as many are quick to claim.

You can make a point about Biden being Catholic: yes, he was baptized, and no doubt received first Communion and Confirmation. Bishop Tobin knows that as do most. Biden has made clear he was raised Catholic.

But that’s not the point. Being baptized and Confirmed is only part of being Catholic. The rest involves responding to grace and living in a state of grace

It appears as though Biden receives Communion often publicly. That does not make him, or anyone else, in and of itself a practicing Catholic. Receiving Communion when not in a state of grace, that is, in a state of mortal sin, cannot save a soul. Doing such is sinning further. Add to that the scandal and it only makes matters worse.

The point is that Biden is not a Catholic in good standing. No bishop can make him one. And no bishop can deny the truth that Biden has committed public scandal against the faith and morals of the Church. Only by publicly renouncing his public acts and words of scandal can Biden truly return to the Catholic fold.

We all pray for the day.

Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.

Let’s continue the conversation on Parler, the new free speech social network, where you’ll find me as @FatherKevinMCusick.

Saint Jerome: “The teachers and Bishops, then, look well to it, seeing that mighty men shall be mightily tormented, Wisd. vi. 7. And there is no help for them, but they fall into hell with a greater crash.“

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew Matt 5:13-19 on the feast of Saint Jerome

At that time Jesus said unto His disciples: Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? ...

Homily by St. Jerome, Priest at Bethlehem. Book i. Comm. on Matth. v.

Apostles and teachers are called salt, for it is by them that the whole mass of mankind is seasoned. But if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? If the teacher have gone astray, by what other teacher is he to be corrected? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. This is a figure taken from farming. Salt is used to savour food withal, and to preserve meat, but it hath no other use. In sooth, we read in the Scriptures of some cities which were sown with salt in the fury of their conquerors, that no bud of life might ever spring there again.

The teachers and Bishops, then, look well to it, seeing that mighty men shall be mightily tormented, Wisd. vi. 7. And there is no help for them, but they fall into hell with a greater crash. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may give light unto all that are in the house. Here He teacheth boldness in preaching, lest the Apostles should shrink away from fear, and be like unto candles under a bushel; but contrariwise should come forward with all freedom, and should proclaim upon the house-tops that which had been spoken in the ear in closets. Luke xii. 3.

BrevRom

Catholic Deacon Mike Coney is Amy Barrett’s father

Amy Coney Barrett’s father Mike is a deacon in Louisiana.

Amy's relationship with the ecumenical People of Praise began with her parents and experience of Catholic Faith and family life in Louisiana.

https://scschurch.com/deaconmike

My latest column: “People Will Die”

Yes, they will. It is indeed impossible to be alive without suffering the risk of dying in every moment of life.

By Father Kevin M Cusick 

The COVID-19 phenomenon is not just about a disease. It’s also about exposing the maladies afflicting our society and our world. And in the Church as well.

“People will die,” we’re told.

“People will die,” we’re told, if we don’t wear a mask, wash hands, anti-socially distance, and stay home. Some people, however, are dying because they are doing these things. COVID-19 is not the only threat humanity faces.

I haven’t heard the same morally superior individuals who are militant about masks warn that people will die because of riots. And people have died because of riots. I haven’t heard the same social justice warriors who harangue on and on about physical health say anything about the fact that people will die if a doctor suctions a living baby out of her mother’s womb.

And yet millions have died and are dying because of legalized child murder in our abortion mills every day. Yes, people will die. But the death of the body is not the only kind of death and it’s certainly not the worst sort of death.

People are dying in the vast wildfires on the West Coast. People are dying as a result of Hurricane Sally. Unprecedented areas of land in California have been consumed by flame and cadaver dogs are being led through the wreckage to find the dead. Over twenty inches of rainfall fell on the Florida panhandle and Alabama and the resulting loss of human life has yet to be fully revealed.

The risk of death begins the very moment we are born and doesn’t end until we die, when and where we do not know.

Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/a-leaven-in-the-world-people-will-die-but-only-fear-sin/

My latest column “Catholics Can Go to Hell”

 

Subscribe at https://thewandererpress.com/

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The Debate About Vatican II: Never Pastoral without Traditional

“The status of a homily delivered in the 1960’s?”

By Father Kevin M Cusick

The present state of affairs has many Catholics angry, confused and questioning. So much poor leadership and corruption have together conspired to destroy what seemed before Vatican II to be a healthy, vibrant and growing Body of Christ.

Catholics have abandoned the Faith in droves, led by many priests and religious who bled from the Body of Christ by the thousands after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council.

In the intervening years John Paul II and Benedict have attempted to stanch the flow by bringing back Tradition. John Paul was notable for replanting Marian devotion and strengthening catechetical teaching. Benedict restored the traditional Mass to its proper place as something sacred which should always remain so.

These elements are among the many handed down in the Church which reliably transmit the apostolic Faith.

To the extent that Vatican II documents referred to the Tradition they can be trusted. That was never a problem.

The problem were the ambiguous time bombs planted in the documents, together with some orthodox elements, that were later exploited by committees and individuals, after the Council, like a wrecking ball against the edifice of the Tradition.

That technique by nefarious individuals of undermining orthodoxy has roared back into operation in recent years.

One by one the practices remaining in faithfulness to Tradition have been dismantled beginning in Rome under Pope Francis. The technique of borrowing just enough elements of tradition to achieve the objective of advancing its opposite has come back into vogue.

Lip service is paid to recognizably Catholic practices and devotions on the surface while building blocks are systematically removed under the structure which endangers the integrity of the whole.

Amoris Laetitia is a case in point. Write a long and lyrically beautiful paean to Catholic marriage and family life, while burying a time bomb foot note in it that blows up the whole thing when followed to its logical conclusion.

We’ve always known and believed with the Church that receiving the Eucharistic Body of Christ in a state of mortal sin flies in the face of the Faith because it doesn’t save but rather condemns souls to hell. Yet glossing over civil remarriage after divorce, by refusing to call it adultery, in the name of “pastoral care” removes a basic building block upon which the whole edifice of the Church depends or otherwise falls.

That which uses grace as a placebo without sorrow for sin is putting a band aid on a sucking chest wound.

That which kills souls is never pastoral, never love. Calling it such is a fraud of cosmic proportions.

The plethora of poor and heretical teaching topped off by sacrilege, such as leading souls to receive Communion in a state of mortal sin or irreverently, is the tip of the sword against the holiness of teaching.

Attacking and destroying that which is holiest in the Church, the Most Blessed Sacrament, is the real objective of the evil one. The devil cannot destroy God Himself. What he can do, however, is deceive man and woman into receiving the Eucharist uselessly and sacrilegiously. He can deploy deranged and evil individuals to desecrate the Sacrament, our churches and sacred statues.

Discouragement and despair are the temptations he uses against the faithful who witness this tidal wave of evil which has swept over the globe in recent days.

A recent video originating in Minnesota instructed Catholics to pick up an envelope containing the Eucharist as they departed the church after Mass, like takeout food. The video was very careful to include a shot of parishioners dropping their offertory envelopes in a basket before helping themselves to “the-Body-of-Christ-to-go”, to be consumed “safely” in their cars after removing their masks.

The archdiocese concerned intervened to stop the scandal, as those who wrote letters and otherwise complained were informed by an official response.

People are asking, who or what is to blame for the many cases of ongoing destruction of Catholic Tradition?

Archbishop Vigano weighed into the debate recently with an intervention that blames Vatican II, in line with the position of the Society of Pope Pius X. This triggered an avalanche of reactions in defense of the Council.

Bishop Barron said that Vatican II is “part of the Tradition”. By this he hopes to undermine the whole argument of Traditionalists. Not so fast.

Vatican II defines itself as a pastoral council. It is laced throughout with optional suggestions. The Vatican II Mass is the masterpiece of this technique, riddled throughout with options as it is, sometimes authorized by rubrics which say things like, “in these or similar words”.

Over against Scripture and Tradition, pastoral is only obligatory insofar as it aligns with Scripture and Tradition. Otherwise it’s optional. And in cases where pastoral is incompatible with Scripture and Tradition it should be vigorously rejected.

Father Weinandy is countering the Vigan position. Quoted by Gloria TV, Weinandy says that “’some bits and pieces’ of the Vatican II teachings ‘may need revision’ but he believes that the Pastoral Council has borne authentic fruit that ‘is yet to come to full maturity.’"

These “bits and pieces” are enough to compromise the whole, as arsenic in brownies. If you know there is arsenic in the brownies you wouldn’t eat them unless there was something wrong with you.

These “bits and pieces” have in fact borne bad fruit and continue to do so. Witness the many liars in high places and low who cite “the Spirit of Vatican II” to advance the most deceptive and evil frauds upon the trusting and unsuspecting.

Pastoral is drawn from and depends upon the pillars of Tradition and Scripture but does not replace them.

Pastoral is the continued application of what has been revealed once and for always to particular situations in the Church’s ongoing work of saving souls.

In connection with this, the best description I once heard for situating Vatican II within the long arc of Church history is to describe it as having the status of “a homily that was delivered in the 1960’s.”

Homilies are pastoral, they deploy Scripture and Tradition to bring the Gospel to individual believers in a given time and place, with mixed results. The homilies never stand alone, they always refer back to and must stand or fall on their conformity, or not, to the foundations of Faith. The pastoral always must flow from them as any teaching in the Magisterium of the Church must do.

The Faith is not my personal property or yours. We are receivers of the Tradition in Christ, faithfully handed on in the Church through the work of the Holy Spirit. We remain faithful as we lovingly and reverently receive and hand on the key to salvation in the Faith of Peter and the Apostles.

This is the best and most loving “pastoral” practice in the Church. Vatican II stands or falls in the light of this truth.

You be the judge.

Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.

Let’s continue the conversation on Parler, the new free speech social network. You can find me there as @FatherKevinMCusick