Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Biden s wife, Jill, holds the family Bible during his inauguration at the Capitol in Washington Jan. 20, 2021. (CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters)
Following the inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop José Gomez, released a lengthy statement, in which he laid out areas in which the bishops may work well with the new administration. But it also included a stinging rebuke of the president’s support for “policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage and gender.” Archbishop Gomez’s letter was unusually lengthy and struck some Catholics as tone-deaf, given the present opportunity for a fresh start with a new president.