WASHINGTON
President Biden only the second Roman Catholic in U.S. history elected to the country’s highest political office keeps a picture in the Oval Office of himself with Pope Francis.
No doubt Biden can count on partnership with the progressive pope as he reverses many Trump-era policies to battle climate change and reform immigration.
But support within his own country’s Catholic Church looks more tenuous, and Biden has been given a surprisingly hostile reception from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops under the guidance of Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez.
In the intersection of religion and politics, nowhere does the division between conservatives and progressives in the Catholic Church cleave more deeply than in the United States, as Biden’s election reveals.
Pope Francis is a Biden fan, but some U.S. Catholic leaders give president a frosty reception
Gomez, affiliated with the conservative Opus Dei sect, also met opposition from several U.S. bishops, who said he failed to run the statement by all members of the conference as is required. San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy indirectly criticized Gomez.
“Most importantly of all,” McElroy said in his own post-inauguration statement, U.S. bishops “should encourage our new president: by entering into a relationship of dialogue, not judgment; collaboration, not isolation; truth in charity, not harshness.”
In contrast to Gomez’s skepticism about Biden, the conference welcomed the 2017 inauguration of President Trump, despite his three marriages, extramarital affair with a porn star and widely-publicized comment about grabbing women by the genitals. (They later diverged on issues such as immigration.)
What Democrats’ Georgia wins mean for Senate’s future, Biden agenda
Democratic Senate candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are seen in this combination photo. (CNS combination photo/Mike Segar and Brian Snyder of Reuters)
By Mark Pattison • Catholic News Service • Posted January 11, 2021
WASHINGTON (CNS) The wins by Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, in the Jan. 5 U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia will give Democrats the White House and both houses of Congress.
But precisely how that will play out is far less clear, noted three professors at different Catholic universities in Washington.
Joe Biden’s Electoral College win and popular vote over incumbent Republican President Donald Trump was the most clear-cut, despite two months of baseless complaints by Trump and his allies claiming the election was rigged. But Democrats’ advantage in the House dwindled by double digits to their current 11-seat advantage, 222-211, with two va