Both of these individuals have paraded their Catholicism in front of the media for years, and both of these individuals have done their best to aid and abet the practice of abortion during their careers. Now, whether you support abortion or not, you might agree that if your church says it’s wrong, then you should too. Or if you don’t agree because you think you should get to have your own independent beliefs within a faith structure, then you could do that as well. I probably see myself in that camp because there are some things I’ve really struggled with about the Church and cannot fully accept. And while the Church expects you to follow its teachings and comply with them, even the ones you don’t understand or agree with, then I’m afraid that sort of faith is based on a system of complete trust in a hierarchy that said hierarchy has corroded all on its own. At least in my view. 

Now, if you don’t accept something, the Church asks that you continue to wrestle with it and pray for wisdom. And I think that’s quite reasonable. However, it seems to me that while you’re doing this, you should hold off on doing whatever it is you’re doing that is the source of the dissent. In other words, and by way of simplification, if you’re not sure that stealing is wrong, then you probably shouldn’t keep stealing while you’re trying to figure it out.

For Pelosi and Biden, I believe they should have stopped supporting abortion if they ever wrestled with that. But they didn’t (and haven’t) stopped supporting abortion, so that tells me a couple of things. First, it could be that they have already done their wrestling and come up with a belief that abortions are morally benign. But if they say that abortions are morally benign, then they’re in it up to their chins because violating Church teaching on the subject is one of the few documented offenses that can actually get you excommunicated. While mens rea can be a reason why it might not, neither of these two professional politicians can claim that, as they have supported abortion for decades.

So that’s actually not what they’re thinking. They know what abortion is, and they know that the Catholic Church prohibits it. And they still wave the flag and brag about being Catholic. By now, it’s a habit. It’s just a tool. Hey, look at me. I’m virtuous. I go to church on Sundays.