Kamala Harris insisted Wednesday that Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden is a “practicing Catholic” and a person of “faith” even though he promotes abortion in contradiction to Catholic Church teachings.
Harris, Biden’s vice presidential running mate, talked up Biden’s faith while trying to defend herself against allegations of anti-Catholic bigotry during the vice presidential debate.
The Hill reports Republican Vice President Mike Pence accused Harris and other Democrats of targeting the faith of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. A well-respected justice on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Barrett is conservative, Catholic and pro-life.
Pence praised Barrett and expressed hope that Democrats will give her a fair confirmation hearing in the U.S. Senate. He said he hopes she will not be subjected to “the kinds of attacks on her Christian faith that we saw before.”
Harris responded by slamming Pence’s comments, saying: “Joe Biden and I are both people of faith, and it’s insulting to suggest that we would knock anyone for their faith. And in fact Joe, if elected, will be only the second practicing Catholic as president of the United States.”
“Joe Biden and I are both people of faith, and it’s insulting to suggest that we would knock anyone for their faith,” says Kamala Harris, after Pence reminded her how she suggested that Catholics may be unfit for office when she evaluated Catholic Judge Brian Buescher in 2018. pic.twitter.com/lWTXXcd4Au
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 8, 2020
But Harris has been accused of anti-Catholic bigotry in the past, and Biden has faced on-going criticism for failing to live up to the faith that he professes.
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In 2019, Senate leaders introduced a resolution to rebuke Harris and U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono after they criticized a federal judicial nominee because of his affiliation with the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic society that helps pro-life pregnancy centers and other charities.
“Harris can’t own up to her anti-Catholic bigotry, clearly on display in her role on the Senate Judiciary committee as VP Pence just reminded us,” Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life responded on Twitter during the debate.
Pavone and other Catholic leaders also have been calling out Biden’s radical pro-abortion stance and policies that would infringe on religious freedom for Catholic charities and employers.
Biden and Harris have some of the most anti-life, anti-Catholic policies in U.S. history. Among them, the Democrat presidential ticket would force nuns to pay for birth control, including types that may cause abortions, in their employee health plans and force all American taxpayers to pay for elective abortions through Medicaid. Catholic hospitals and doctors could be forced to help participate in the aborting of unborn babies, too.
These extreme, anti-Catholic positions prompted a South Carolina priest to refuse communion to Biden in 2019.
“Nobody can or should force you to be a Catholic, and nobody can or should force you to be a defender of legal abortion. But you cannot be both at the same time,” Pavone wrote in 2019. “To claim to do so is an insult to all of us who proclaim and strive to live the Catholic Faith. And it invites the criticism that your public identification as a Catholic, while carrying water for the abortion industry, is simply the crass politics of seeking the money and votes of both constituencies.”
Some Democrats have been trying to tone down Biden’s radical pro-abortion stance, noting that he personally opposes abortion, but he believes he does not have “a right to impose my views on the rest of society.”
But Biden does want to impose the Democratic Party’s radical pro-abortion views on Americans.
After years of supporting the Hyde Amendment, Biden now says he will advocate against it. The long-standing amendment prohibits federal funding for elective abortions in Medicaid and other federal programs. Since it was first enacted, it has saved approximately 2.4 million unborn babies’ lives, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
In June, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a major abortion case out of Louisiana, Biden responded with his belief in a “woman’s constitutional right to choice under any circumstances.” During the coronavirus shutdowns, he even called elective abortions an “essential medical service.”
His plan also includes codifying Roe v. Wade into law and appointing pro-abortion judges to the U.S. Supreme Court so that the killing of unborn babies in abortions can continue at a massive scale for years to come.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is encouraging Catholics to prioritize protections for unborn babies when they vote in November.
“The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed,” their voter’s guide states.
