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My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
In an interview on the CBS news program Face the Nation on Easter Sunday this year, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, said that President Biden was a “cafeteria Catholic” who, “like a number of Catholics, picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.” He explained that the phrase “cafeteria Catholic” refers to those who “choose that which is attractive and dismiss that which is challenging,”
After President Biden promised in his 2024 State of the Union address in March that he would do what he could to “restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again,” Cardinal Gregory said, “I would say there are things, especially in terms of the life issues, there are things that he chooses to ignore. The issues of life begin at the very beginning. And they conclude at natural death. You can’t pick and choose. You’re either one who respects life in all of its dimensions, or you have to step aside and say, ‘I’m not pro-life.’”
I fully support Cardinal Gregory and agree with what he said.
Of course, there are limits to what a Catholic can reject without falling into heresy, apostasy, or schism. According to canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law, “Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” A person who commits heresy is called a heretic; a person who apostasizes from the faith is called an apostate; a person who is guilty of schism is called a schismatic. According to canon 1364, §1, an apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic incurs an automatic excommunication, which means that it does not need to be declared by any ecclesiastical authority. An excommunicated person is no longer in full communion with the Catholic Church until he or she repents, goes to confession, and is absolved from the sin with remission of the penalty by the competent ecclesiastical authority, which normally is done by a priest in the sacrament of penance.
Last month, on April 23, Biden compounded his support for the sin of abortion by making the sign of the cross during an abortion rally in Tampa, Fla. According to news reports describing the incident, Biden made the sign of the cross while a Biden supporter on stage criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing a bill into law reducing the time from which an abortion in the state would be legal from 15 to within six weeks of gestation.
With Biden standing next to Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried, she said, “And then we come back here to [the] state of Florida, where … 15 weeks wasn’t good enough, so we had to go to six weeks,” referring to the new limit until which abortion is allowed under state law. As soon as Fried said “wasn’t good enough,” Biden began to cross himself with the sign of the cross.
Expressing his criticism of Biden’s gesture on his weekday radio program on Radio María España, Bishop José Ignacio Munilla, the bishop of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain, said that making the sign of the cross in support of abortion constitutes a “sacrilegious” gesture and “the desecration of the sign of the cross.” Bishop Munilla said that crossing oneself is meant to be used as a sign “in which we remember that Jesus gave his life for us, he gave his life for all the innocents, he gave his life to restore innocence and to make us saints.” To use the sign of the cross as Biden did, however, is to “invoke the cross in a sacrilegious manner.”
I fully support Bishop Munilla and agree with what he said.
According to paragraph 2120 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin.” Making the sign of the cross is one of the most profound gestures a Catholic can make in showing reverence for Christ’s death on the cross and belief in the Holy Trinity as we sign ourselves in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. To misuse this sacred gesture is to make a mockery of our Catholic faith.
The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians says, “Make no mistake: God is not mocked, for a person will reap only what he sows, because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up. So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, but especially to those who belong to the family of the faith” (Galatians 6:7-10).
May God give us this grace. Amen.