Opinion | Biden Is the Most Pro-Family President in Decades. So Why Is the Catholic Church Attacking Him?
Rather than criticizing the president over abortion, the Catholic Church should learn from his agenda.
Americans are on the verge of benefiting from perhaps the most pro-family legislation in the nation’s history. And the Catholic Church is nowhere to be seen.
The church has been a major political force behind the creation of America’s social safety net, from supporting the establishment of Social Security, Medicare and anti-poverty programs, to advocating for immigration and civil rights reforms. Today, parents — poor, working- and middle-class, and even the “barely rich” — are being crushed by the skyrocketing costs of raising, housing and educating their kids, while also shouldering the financial and personal costs of caring for aging parents. But for the first time in a generation, they have a shot at getting some relief. President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” package would provide major assistance for child care, paid and family leave, health care and long-term care for seniors, a pathway out of the shadows for millions of immigrant families, and measures to move millions of children out of poverty.
However, with this sweeping pro-family measure hanging in the balance, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — whose support for major legislation historically has been crucial — has largely been silent. Church leaders, who enjoy guaranteed health care and housing for life, have mounted no public campaign to support it or lobbying of lawmakers to pass it. No pressure on Catholic Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin not to water down pro-family and anti-poverty provisions. No pressure on Catholic GOP senators like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to provide bipartisan support for elderly and disabled care provisions. Their only advocacy so far has been to invent concerns about tax dollars funding abortion services that are not even included anywhere in the bill.
This absence of moral leadership reflects a decadeslong decline of the political relevance of the USCCB. While it quietly release statements about protecting the poor and vulnerable, it has focused its political firepower almost exclusively on one issue — abortion.
It has become an absurdist one-note play. Not content to place abortion atop all other moral issues, the USCCB has acted as if it is the only one — even during a period of dehumanizing and violent attacks on immigrants and marginalized communities, with hundreds of thousands dying from a pandemic. While some individual bishops have shown the moral courage to speak up for immigrants and the poor, or to criticize hate and violence, the Bishops Conference has shown no moral urgency. It lacked the courage to even mention Donald Trump by name in its few statements of concern. Abortion remains relevant to many Catholic voters on both sides of the issue, but the USCCB’s monotonous statements on the matter tend to be about as noteworthy as a Catholic feeling guilt.
This moral myopia reached its peak with its short-lived efforts to politicize the Eucharist this summer. The trial balloon about denying communion to Biden over his support for abortion rights left the bishops looking like poll-tested politicians, and generated a diplomatic rebuke from the Vatican spokesperson, who made clear that Pope Francis considers the Eucharist to be “the bread of sinners not a reward for saints.” Only 29 percent of American Catholics supported the bishops’ idea, according to a March survey by the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, 82 percent have a favorable view of Pope Francis.
The bishops’ communion misfire reflects the second reason their political influence has eroded so much: their lack of moral authority or even legitimacy among so many American Catholics. Only 31 percent of American Catholics rank the clergy as high on “honesty and ethical standards.” This reflects the failure of the church even today to prioritize accountability and ask forgiveness for the abuse, rape and silencing of thousands of children. To this day, the church’s only lobbying priority that may rank higher than abortion is fighting every federal or state law that targets its impunity and limited liability over the sexual abuse saga. At a time when a deeply divided America could benefit from the moral leadership of what the USCCB preaches — confession, contrition and penance — these leaders respond with obfuscation, lobbyists and lectures.
The conference’s latest partisan attacks on the president ironically have probably done more than anything else to elevate Biden above the bishops as the voice of American Catholicism. The empathizer-in-chief speaks to the values that shaped so many of us as Catholics, including his compassion and clear awareness of his own flaws and sins. His soul is still rooted in the struggles of Scranton and the social teachings of the church.
Instead of criticizing Biden, the bishops would do well to listen humbly and hear how his agenda reflects the struggles families in the pews — and those who have left — face in paying for child care and aging parents, keeping their families out of poverty and helping others come out of the shadows. The bishops’ recent Labor Day statement calling for action to promote the “common good” was a promising start. To more of that, the congregation of American Catholics would be unified in saying, Amen!