Failing Joe Biden

The headline is almost predictable: Biden Proclaims Easter Sunday ‘Trans Day of Visibility’ (National Review, 3/30/24). 

President Biden maintains that he is a devout Catholic, but he tirelessly champions abortion, same sex marriage, and transgenderism in defiance of Catholic teaching!

Whether it is owing to ignorance or cowardice, Joe Biden disregards that these crimes can NEVER help people in any way!

Though sinners (i.e., all of us) hopefully become more aware of Judgment Day with age, Biden seems to be doing the opposite.  Bishops and other clergy are failing to correct Joe Biden, as he journeys on a path that can only lead to one place!

Failing All of Us

In Betrayed Without a Kiss, John Clark takes us on a whirlwind tour of how we have been failed by the Church in areas of proclaiming truth about marriage/ family/ human sexuality.  There has been a betrayal of the magnificent sacrament of marriage:

• "there are only two vocational sacraments: Holy Orders and Matrimony—and it is the latter that is in decline." (p. 15)
• "What is the root cause of Matrimony’s problems? Broadly, it is the failure to appreciate Matrimony as a sacrament." (p. 16)
• "And though one could easily argue that many outside factors have hurt marriage, three stand out in particular: pornography, feminism, and the rejection of father-hood." (p. 89)
• "In 1991, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote in Centesimus Annus, 'A workman’s wages should be sufficient to enable him to support himself, his wife and his children.'  What might be called a living wage doctrine or a family wage doctrine has been formally and consistently taught by the Church since her first social encyclical....Marriage numbers are hemorrhaging, in considerable measure, for economic reasons. Clergy can help turn this around." (pp. 232, 233)
• "If we are going to have a Eucharistic revival and a revival of priestly callings, we first need a revival of marriage." (p.225)
• "In 1991, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote in Centesimus Annus, “A workman’s wages should be sufficient to enable him to support himself, his wife and his children.”475 What might be called a living wage doctrine or a family wage doctrine has been formally and consistently taught by the Church since her first social encyclical. This is official Church teaching and, thus, binding on the faithful." (p.232)

The Roman Rota

Mr. Clark spends a good deal of time discussing the Roman Rota, which is analogous to the Church's Supreme Court for marriage cases.  

Like late sociologist Robert Vasoli, Clark believes that the Roman Rota has reigned in American marriage tribunals (cf, My review of "What God Has Joined Together: The Annulment Crisis in American Catholicism", 1998).  Yet, he seems to only consider annual addresses to the Roman Rota from Pope Francis' two immediate predecessors.

• Saint Pope John Paul II (1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005)
• Pope Benedict XVI (2006 – 2013)

Clark glosses over Pope Francis' addresses to the Roman Rota. Veteran Catholic journalist Phil Lawler has NOT done so:  

Nearly every year during his pontificate, when he delivered his annual address to the Roman Rota at the start of its judicial year, Pope John Paul II would urge the tribunal judges—and by extension, the judges on marriage tribunals in every diocese—to uphold the sanctity of the marital union. More specifically, he exhorted tribunal judges not to rush to judgment in annulment cases—not to assume that a troubled marriage is no marriage at all. 

Pope Benedict XVI delivered the same message, but added that tribunals could be more efficient. Where there is a strong case for the nullity of a marriage, he said, the faithful have the right to a timely judgment. 

Then Pope Francis rushed headlong into the campaign, encouraging the tribunals not only to act quickly, but also—in an apparent reversal of his predecessors’ messages—to hand out annulments more readily. (The Pope’s misplaced sympathy for fathers who leave home, 2/1/21) 

• Pope Francis (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)