Professor Massimo Faggioli The gulf between Joe Biden and the US bishops is a symptom of a divided Church, writes Jason Osborne
Plenty has already been said about the fractious state the United States find themselves in; religiously, politically and culturally. It was into this mire that President Joe Biden has waded, himself a flash point in many of the societal wars currently being waged. A divisive figure from the off, President Biden presents himself as a devout Catholic, and yet has been pulled up by many for his perceived failings to not even promote, but defend, Catholicism and Catholic teaching in the public sphere.
Politics and religion
Hoping to cast a light on a man who has evaded satisfactory analysis so far, historian and theologian Massimo Faggioli has penned a new book, Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States, in an attempt to better help readers understand the president’s place at the intersection of politics and religion.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Professor Faggioli explained that the first thing to be noted is the significance of the election of only the second-ever Catholic to the office of US president. Personal piety aside, and remaining purely in the realm of sociology, the fact that Mr Biden finds himself in the seat of power of what has historically been a Protestant country is remarkable in and of itself, Dr Faggioli argues.
“It’s very important, not just because it happened twice in less than a century, but also because as we know, the United States as a country, as a nation, as an idea, was founded by Protestants,” Dr Faggioli said.
Anti-Catholicism
“For a long time, until the mid-20th Century, anti-Catholicism was a really integral part of the culture of the establishment, of the elites, and so we had already a breakthrough with John Kennedy in 1960, but Joe Biden’s election means something different because now Catholicism is the single largest Church in the United States. This happens at a particular time in the life of the nation, but also of the Catholic Church.”
This signals an enormous shift in the American attitude towards Catholicism, Dr Faggioli says, because for the longest time, Catholicism itself was regarded with a wary suspicion.
“Well, for a long time, beginning with the early 19th Century, Catholicism was considered an alien presence that was incompatible with the American ideals, with American democracy, and with American religion. And so as you know very well, Irish were not considered compatible for a long time and then Italians and then the Latinos. There’s a long history in this tension between the compatibility of the Catholic Church with America,” Professor Faggioli said.
Key factors that drove the shift in attitudes towards Catholicism in America included the enormous impact World War II had on American society, particularly the socio-economic changes it brought about. Not only this, but the “sheer growth” of the Catholic community in the country meant that it wouldn’t be long before Catholicism would have to be accepted.
At the time of John Kennedy, the question was, ‘Are you a Catholic or not?’ if you were running”
“And so, things start to really change in the 1940s-50s, and it has been a constant growth. In these last 60-70 years, with a big change in these last couple of decades, I would say that there is a bi-partition or a polarisation in the Catholic community, which is the fundamental difference between the Catholic Church today and at the time of John Kennedy. At the time of John Kennedy, the question was, ‘Are you a Catholic or not?’ if you were running. Now the question is, ‘What kind of Catholic are you?’ It’s a whole different situation,” Prof. Faggioli explains.
The fragmentation in the Catholic Church in America is a phenomenon that is making itself felt on many levels – not least in the polarised reception President Biden has received since taking to office. Many Catholics argue that if you’re going to tout the Faith in the public eye, you should be prepared to walk the walk, while other Catholics hold that Mr Biden’s comparable normalcy is to be desired after former-President Trump’s time in office.
President Biden’s willingness to display his faith in public has rubbed many the wrong way, but the very fact that he’s willing to do so marks another change in the Catholic relationship with public office, Prof. Faggioli explains.
Faith
“John Kennedy basically privatised his Catholicism, but he also privatised many other things of his life, so it was really part of a general persona. Joe Biden’s faith has always been a really integral part of his life. It has been cemented in him because of the tragedies he came through, and so he used his faith in a very wise way, especially during the campaign, not to ‘play Church’, but to be more himself. The only thing he did was not to hide it,” he said.
“It was the choice to keep doing what he was doing – going to Mass, having the rosary in his pocket, and so on. That is the first time in American history because all other candidates, I mean, Al Smith in 1928, John Kennedy in 1960, and even John Kerry in 2004. They all chose to make that part of their life private, and so this is something new.”
In keeping with the polarised response to Mr Biden, some have expressed delight at such visible displays of faith in the oval office, while others have been critical of the lack of substance to the gestures.
Many commentators have pointed to President Biden’s repeal of a ban on federal funds going to international aid groups that perform or otherwise advocate for abortion, the BBC reporting that Mr Biden said the ending of the Mexico City Policy reverses former President Trump’s “attack on women’s health access”. Policy decisions such as these are at odds with Catholic teaching.
A further point of contention raised by those who argue Mr Biden’s Catholicism is that his emphasis on a specific form of “equality” will see religious freedoms undermined”
The programme had previously been expanded by then-President Trump, who banned funds from going to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that provide funding for abortion groups.
A further point of contention raised by those who argue Mr Biden’s Catholicism is that his emphasis on a specific form of “equality” will see religious freedoms undermined. These fears are expressed in response to Mr Biden’s support for the Equality Act, which would see the 1964 Civil Rights Act expanded to forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
No Catholic would argue against less discrimination, but the concerns expressed say that such an Act would override the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gives people a way to challenge the government on matters they feel infringe on their religious rights.
Practical examples of how this might play out could see religious hospitals forced to offer gender transition therapies or perform operations to the same effect, thereby violating their religious convictions. Similarly, faith-based adoption agencies could be made to place children entrusted to them with same-sex couples or transgender couples.
Conscience rights
The chairmen of five US bishops’ committees have said that if the act were passed, its mandates will “discriminate against people of faith” by adversely affecting charities and those who avail of them, women’s sports, “sex-specific facilities” and conscience rights.
How Mr Biden himself squares stances which are opposed to those the Church takes, Prof. Faggioli says, is that he does so in a way “typical of Catholics in the 20th Century”.
“[He does so] by saying, ‘I personally respect the teaching of the Catholic Church, but as a politician, I cannot impose that,’ which is something that made more sense in the 20th Century. And so right now, it’s more difficult honestly to hold that because the Democratic Party has become more radical on life issues and so it’s a position that is more difficult to square with the reality of the ideology of the party. So, it’s a very difficult balance. This is the single most important choice that a Catholic politician has to make in the West, so what kind of a position is mine on the abortion issue. But on top of this, there has been in these last few years other issues that are core in the culture war. It’s an area which is religious freedom for the Church, LGBT rights, but again, it’s emotionally, still the abortion issue is the number one,” Prof. Faggioli says.
Tensions
As mentioned, the US bishops have been critical of some of President Biden’s stances, but that should not come as a surprise when the stony welcome the incoming president received from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is considered. Dr Faggioli explained the tensions the president’s faith has exacerbated among the US bishops.
“It has caused tensions because in the campaign and immediately after the election and on inauguration day, the majority of the US bishops, which has one of its members as president of the bishops conference, has chosen a hard-line on President Biden. They issued a stern statement on January 20, even before the Pope sent his message to Joe Biden. In mid-November, they established a special committee of the USCCB to deal with Joe Biden’s position on abortion and his participation in Communion. This group in these last few days has been disbanded, and so nothing will come of that group.
We never heard anything from the US bishops saying that you are excluding from the democratic process some that are members of our churches”
“I mean, the issue is still there, but not the group. But it’s a bishops’ conference that is clearly divided because the ordinary, the archbishop of Washington D.C. has said repeatedly that he has no intention to use the Eucharist as a weapon to make a case of President Biden. He said that he will raise the issue of abortion but not beginning with a sanction…the USCCB itself is divided on this, quite openly, honestly, because some bishops have in public challenged the wisdom of those steps taken by the president of the USCCB.”
In the same way that Catholics too cosy with President Biden receive criticism, so too has criticism been levelled at the USCCB for those times when members were seen to be too close to the Trump administration. Prof. Faggioli suspects that such criticism was fair.
“I think it is. I think it is unfortunate because it’s clear that the duty of the bishops to be, but also to look, non-partisan was not respected. I never expected US bishops to invite Catholics to vote for Joe Biden, but I did expect more balance in terms of criticism of what the Trump administration was doing,” Prof. Faggioli explains, continuing, “I’ll give one example, in these last few years, we have seen from the Trump administration repeated attempts to disenfranchise sectors of voting population in many states, simply because they were inclined to vote for the other party. On this, we never heard anything from the US bishops saying that you are excluding from the democratic process some that are members of our churches. We never heard that. And so, there was clearly an attempt to cling to that presidency because of the abortion issue, I believe, in a fundamental blindness of the whole picture of the whole country, so I’m afraid it is a fair criticism.”
Whether Catholicism can have any influence on the way the White House operates, only time will tell. But Dr Faggioli suggests that one thing Catholic bishops and intellectuals can do to sway the behaviour of the Democratic Party is “put some distance between political worldviews and dogmatic, orthodox understanding of things”.
“Now in the west, the only orthodoxy that is very strongly held is political. It is no longer religious or dogmatic. Secondly, I think Catholicism can bring into the national conversation a certain sense of the unity of the people, of the human family. Something typical of Catholicism should be that it’s the opposite of the sectarian mentality. It’s a country that has become very sectarian, politically, culturally, religiously. These are two things in which Catholics can have a voice, also because this presidency could reignite or start a new conversation that, until Trump was really focused on two camps, and this needs to change.”
Whether or not President Biden is the man to heal the divide between the states remains to be seen, but one relationship Dr Faggioli expects to improve is that between the US and the Vatican, seeing something of a likeness between Pope Francis and Mr Biden.
“Historically, the Vatican always has a very pragmatic approach to every new leader. This is Vatican pragmatism, diplomacy. In this case, there’s something different because the Vatican went through a very difficult four years with Donald Trump on many issues and so the election of Joe Biden is taken as a very positive sign with a huge sigh of relief. The environmental issue is the most important that both leaders have talked about,” Prof. Faggioli says.
However, it isn’t all going to be smooth sailing, as, with a Latin American Pope, views are expected to diverge on other issues.
“There’s one new factor now, compared to the time of John Paul II and Reagan, or Pope Benedict and George Bush, which is that now, the US president is a Catholic, and he’s much closer to Pope Francis than the US bishops are to Pope Francis, and so this is really strange, but this is reality.”
With Italy hosting the G20 Summit this coming September, a meeting between the Pope and Mr Biden may happen sooner rather than later, with Dr Faggioli guessing that it’s a meeting that both leaders “look very much forward to”.
It’s unlikely that President Biden will heal tensions in the rivalling Catholic camps any time soon, but Dr Faggioli sees a way forward: the synodal model.
A horizon
“I think it (the divide) can be healed if the US Church starts considering the option of a synodal process that need not be exactly like the German one or the Australian one, but something that gives Catholics a horizon, a time frame, to say, ‘Well now there’s a moment to take the time to say things and exchange’. This is not here, not at the local level, not at the national level. This is something Pope Francis has asked many Churches to do, including Italy. There’s a resistance, but I don’t think it’s something that can be avoided for much longer, honestly.”
Until that happens, it’s likely many Catholics will remain at loggerheads with one another, particularly over Mr Biden himself. One thing all should agree on, however, is to pray for him.