President Joe Bidden is a Roman Catholic commander-in-chief

President Joe Biden's Catholicism echo opinion letter published in the Rhode Island Providence Journal.

President Joe Biden departs the Saint Joseph on the Brandywine Catholic Church in Wilmington Delaware

Response to: "Catholics should not let Oval Office set the standard on their faith," A commentary, Rev. John A. Kiley is ecumenical and inter-faith officer of the Diocese of Providence.*

Letter to the editor:

I am Black, raised Catholic, and once seriously considered becoming a priest. But I was drafted and went to the Vietnam War.

I look to the new President Biden not only as the moral marker of the country but also as commander-in-chief. But I don’t idol worship any man like those who stormed the Capitol, including the priest who professed to apply an exorcism on Congress. Why can’t this writer extend the right to life to the fight for life lost by thousands in this pandemic. Or even mention the Black and brown disparity in that grim toll.

My goodness, the Nazis banned abortion for their white supporters although they had no problem with allowing the practice for Jews. By that litmus do you judge Hitler a great leader?

In fact, Catholics occupy six of the nine seats for the Supreme Court. Indeed, thirty percent of the Congress. And yes, now command the White House. Yet I confess to you that I will judge President Joe Biden not by how many Masses he attends but how many funerals he avoids.

Cecil Hickman, Providence, R.I.

*Catholics in the United States were awarded a new patron saint. No, it's not Father Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, nor is it the heroic World War II chaplain, Father Emil Kapaun.

*America’s new patron saint will be President Joseph Biden. Mr. Biden has made no attempt to obscure his Catholic heritage. There are news clips of him coming out of his parish church after Sunday Mass. He is said to carry Rosary beads in his pants’ pocket. Mr. and Mrs. Biden were married by a Catholic priest at the chapel of the United Nations in New York.

Whether Mr. Biden is a good Catholic is only the Lord’s to know, but he is, indeed, a practicing Catholic, as the media made abundantly clear. Certainly there are going to be times when Mr. Biden’s executive conduct is in great accord with much Catholic teaching. Mr. Biden’s attitude toward the environment and toward immigration seems to be in great agreement with the thinking of Pope Francis on these contemporary issues. Mr. Biden’s post-election call for national unity was almost simultaneous with Pope Francis’ issuance of Tutti Fratelli, a Papal plea for international fraternity.

So Mr. Biden’s church attendance and Mr. Biden’s liberal bent on social issues will no doubt endear him to many Catholics and to a number of socially conscious people in general. He will no doubt set a fine Catholic example in certain worthy areas. People will be influenced by his example. He will be a Catholic role model, a new patron saint, as it were.

Alas, Mr. Biden’s views and Mr. Biden’s conduct in a number of other areas have departed greatly from traditional Catholic values. On Jan. 22, the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris heralded the ruling, saying they were “committed to codifying Roe v. Wade.”

(Maine Writer supports this directive about abortion and women's health, because rich women will always have access to legal abortions but the poor are somehow not permitted the same access.)

The White House has announced that Mr. Biden will issue an executive order rescinding the Mexico City Policy that bars U.S. aid to international organizations that provide abortions and abortion counseling