What does Joe Biden have in common with a Catholic Priest?
Sounds like a dirty bar joke to me.
Elections make for strange bedfellows. And Democrats will do anything to excuse their own behavior. But I seriously didn’t expect to see a Priest demonstrate this level of blind allegiance.
I might not be in the pew every Sunday, but I know the basics. Jesus loves the little children, all the children in the world. Red, yellow, black and white. That’s what I was always told. And that love extends to the unborn.
The way I understand it, Catholics frown on birth control, divorce, and they sure as hell don’t go around condoning abortion. But when it comes to politics, I guess these Christian leaders feel free to pick and choose their values. Or in this case, rewrite the values of their chosen candidate.
As Breitbart explains, that’s exactly what this priest did.
A Boston priest wrote this week people can be pro-life even if they support abortion rights, urging his followers to vote for Joe Biden in November.
“I am pro-life and I believe in a woman’s right to choose,” writes Msgr. Paul Garrity, pastor of the parish of the Sacred Heart in Lexington (MA), in a recent Facebook post. “I will vote for Joe Biden for President because I believe that Joe Biden is Pro-life like me.”
The Boston priest said that “Catholics and others who believe as I believe should elect Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States of America.”
“I am pro-life and I believe that every woman who becomes pregnant deserves to have the freedom to choose life. This is what I believe Joe Biden believes and is one of the many reasons that I will vote for him in November,” said Msgr. Garrity in his August 23 post titled “I AM PRO-LIFE AND SUPPORT JOE BIDEN.”
At this point, the FB post is deleted. Clearly, the backlash was just too much. But I can see where the priest got confused. It’s hard to know where Biden actually stands on the issues. He flip-flops like a flounder out of water.
Mixed Signals
Of course, Biden’s been sending mixed signals for more than forty years now. In 1973, Biden signaled that the Supreme Court had gone too far with Roe vs. Wade. But now, Biden considers it a cornerstone of legislation.
Historically, Democrats leaned pro-life until the late 80s. And Joe’s been sitting in congress so long, it’s no wonder he’s not sure which side of the aisle to sit on. That’s the dementia kicking in. But just for the sake of the fact-checkers, here are a few more contradictions in Biden’s record:
According to Axios:
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- A year after Roe v. Wade’s 1973 decision, Biden said a woman shouldn’t have the “sole right to say what should happen to her body.”
- He voted against a 1977 compromise that allowed Medicaid-funded abortions, with exceptions for victims of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
- After the rape and incest exemptions passed, Biden voted in 1981 to remove them, per NBC.
- He also voted multiple times, including in 1983, to prevent federal employees from obtaining abortion services through their health insurance.
The latest: He flipped on the Hyde Amendment this month after 2020 rivals Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke criticized him.
It’s no wonder leftists are concerned about the future of abortion if Biden wins. I’m not sure Biden truly knows which side he wants to be on. He’s just a puppet on a string.
Back to Father Garrity
Like Biden, he waffles in his beliefs. Accordingly, Garrity claims to be pro-life personally, despite his support of pro-choice policies.
After encouraging Catholics and others to vote for Biden, Garrity summed up his beliefs like this:
“The beauty of newborn babies are a reflection of the beauty and goodness of God and should propel us to do all that we can to help expectant mothers to choose life,” he said.
“I believe that it is a tragedy when a woman of any age decides to end her pregnancy prematurely,” said Garrity in an email to CNA. The priest added that in his view, Catholics “are also told that we should not be ‘single issue’ voters” and that the Church is “neutral” on the issue of voting.
In fact, the Church teaches that a person can never vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil, like abortion, in order to advance that evil. A person could only vote for such a candidate if they judged there were proportionate reasons which might outweigh the harm done by the candidate’s election, the Church teaches.
The U.S. bishops conference has said that ending legal protection for abortion is a “preeminent priority” in public life, and numerous bishops have taught there are few or no issues that could outweigh the gravity of abortion.
In 2008, Bishop (now Cardinal) Kevin Farrell released a joint statement with BIshop Kevin Vann saying that in their view “There are no ‘truly grave moral’ or ‘proportionate’ reasons, singularly or combined that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by abortion each year.”
Perhaps Garrity should run for office. He sounds like the perfect leftist to me. He claims one set of beliefs while voting the opposite into action. Forget Kamala Harris. It should’ve been a Biden/Garrity ballot. The only thing missing is a few alter boys.
