Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli: on Principles & Values
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:
In other countries, Biden and I would not be in same party
If there is anyone who represents the future of American Catholicism more accurately, it is House Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who said in January 2020, "In any other country
Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America we are." The American Catholic reality of at least two different churches is not only ideological: it's also generational.
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p.133
Jan 20, 2021
Barack Obama:
Obama represented secular liberalism to US church leaders
The similarities between the way the U.S. bishops interacted with Obama and how they interact with Francis merits a chapter of its own. The tension between the USCCB [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] and the
Obama administration can be seen as a political prelude to the U.S. bishop's reaction to the election of Pope Francis.
If the Obama presidency has been seen by many bishop's and by the leadership of the American bishops' conference as an assault by secular liberalism on the religious freedom of the Catholic Church in Americas, Francis's pontificate is seen by
important centers of Catholic thought as culturally and politically subversive, in that he is unable to understand the extent of the challenges posed to Christianity and Catholicism by liberalism in the Far West.
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p. 81
Jan 20, 2021
Donald Trump:
Trump visit to Vatican more about detente than armistice
The Trump presidency introduced tensions unprecedented in the history of relations between the United States and the Vatican; this was not merely the result of a political accident but an index of divergent long-term trajectories. Pope Francis's
particular attention to building bridges with Islam, the environmental issue, the pivots towards Asia, the Church's witness on immigration, and other social issues are part of a long-term vision for global Catholicism. While Trump's interactions with
Francis during his May 2017 visit to the Vatican with First Lady Melania Trump followed protocol, even projecting a sense of diplomatic normalcy, on the Vatican side, that visit was an attempt at "detente" rather than armistice.
The idea was to introduce the pathogen of Trumpism into the symbolic and administrative heart of Catholicism, to make Rome the parallel capitol of a new anti-European and anti-Francis continent. That project, undertaken between 2018 and 2019, failed.
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p. 69
Jan 20, 2021
Donald Trump:
Aligned with Catholic leaders critical of Pope Francis
It is no coincidence that Archbishop Vigano addressed President Trump with a series of public messages during the 2020 election campaign and that the former nuncio received by
Trump both public praise and a sense of legitimacy. This liaison dangereuse between Vigano and Trump continued well into the transition period after November 3, during the attempts orchestrated by the
Trump movement to undermine the legitimacy of the election results via both legal challenges and Trump rallies. At the rally of December 12, in Washington, D.C., former nuncio appeared in the video, while some members of the
Catholic clergy were present in person, and one of them addressed Trump supporters from the podium delivering something like an attempt at a political exorcism against the election of Joe Biden.
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p. 97
Jan 20, 2021
Joe Biden:
Segment of American Church questions Biden's Catholicism
Catholicism has come far in two centuries in the context of the nation's political life, but it is also very different from what it was at the time of John Kennedy. For the first Catholic president, his being
Catholic was a problem for important sectors of the Protestant establishment of the nation; for the second one, the country has no problem with being Catholic, from among its bishops, its clergy, and its faithful.
Having won numerous elections as Senator since 1973, two national elections to the US Vice Presidency, and now as president in 2020,
Joe Biden lacks no political legitimacy. And yet significant sectors of the Catholic (and otherwise Christian) electorate question his morals.
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p. 3
Jan 20, 2021
Joe Biden:
Publicly open about his faith without imposing it on others
Unlike his predecessors, Biden's Catholicism fits into the twenty-first century, thanks to his easy going way of carrying his faith in public in a way that differentiates it from Kerry's reluctance to defend his faith on a public stage. It combines
traditional devotion (regular attendance at Sunday Mass, the rosary that belonged to his son Beau in his pocket) with freedom of conscience as a public figure; it also combines
American exceptionalism with respect for the international role of the Vatican."What I'm not prepared to do is propose a precise view that is borne out of my faith on other people," he said in a 2015 interview with the Jesuit Magazine America.
A stutterer like Moses, Biden's speeches are often referenced to God, the bible, or the Pope but without sounding aggressive. During the election campaign, he often spoke of, "a battle for the soul of America."
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p. 50-51
Jan 20, 2021
Joe Biden:
Cited hymn "On Eagle's Wings" in his victory speech
Joe Biden made his Catholic faith a central part of his 2020 election campaign, leaving no doubt about where his roots lie and what sustains him. In his speeches and public comments, he did not hesitate to refer to religion. He called his campaign, "a
battle for the soul of America." In his victory speech on November 7, he cited both the Bible and one of the liturgical hymns of the Catholic repertoire most readily identified with the post-Vatican 2 era, "On Eagle's Wings."
Introducing the latter, he commented, "it captures the faith that sustains me, which I believe sustains America. And I hope it can provide some comfort and some solace to the more than
230,000 families who have lost a loved one to this terrible virus this year." And then after quoting several lines of the hymn, Biden concluded, "And now together on eagle's wings we embark on the work that God and history have called upon us to do."
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p.125-126
Jan 20, 2021
Joe Biden:
Catholic doctrine taught me faith without works is dead
In a videotaped message that he prepared for the funeral of George Floyd, killed during a 2020 police arrest in Minneapolis that sparked a summer of deep unrest in the country,
Biden said, "I grew up with Catholic social doctrine, which taught me that faith without works is dead, and you will know us by what we do."
And in a Thanksgiving Day message, he offered words of comfort to a country struggling with the deadly pandemic, evoking the movements of mourning in his own life: "It takes your breath away.
It's really hard to care. It's hard to give thanks. It's even hard to look forward. It's so hard; I understand."
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p.126
Jan 20, 2021
John Kerry:
Tried to separate politics and faith on culture war issues
Kerry opted for a strategy similar to that of Kennedy in 1960. In an interview with "Time"" he explicitly cited Kennedy's separationism: "We have a separation of church and state in this country. As Kennedy said very clearly,
I will be a president who happens to be Catholic, not a Catholic president." Kerry refused to defend his
Catholicism in the face of harsh criticism and to articulate the distinction between private and political stances, even on the issue of abortion, based on prudential rather ideological considerations.His separationist strategy did not work,
partly because the presidential vote in some states took place besides a referendum on same-sex marriage, which highlighted the difference between the two candidates, Kerry, and George W. Bush, on central culture war issues.
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p. 41-42
Jan 20, 2021
Pope Francis:
Resides with clergy instead of separate papal apartment
Pope Francis has placed his pontification and the Roman papacy in a new position with respect to both global political scene and the globality of the Catholic Church in the contemporary
world, thanks to a new inculturation of the papacy that goes far beyond logistics and more visible aspects such as, for example, the choice of living in the Vatican's hotel for clergy (Casa Santa Marta) rather than in the papal apartment.
Source: Biden and Catholicism, by Massimo Faggioli, p. 71
Jan 20, 2021
Page last updated: Nov 25, 2021