Pope Francis has appointed a new Bishop of Wilmington, the home diocese of President Joe Biden. Monsignor William Koenig will be ordained at St. Elizabeth Church in Wilmington on July 13. At his first press conference, Msgr. Koenig did not indicate whether he would favor denying Holy Communion to Biden because of his public support of legalized abortion among other practices condemned by the Catholic Church. “I certainly pray for him every day,” Koenig said of Biden. “I would certainly be open to having a conversation in the future with him.
As a Catholic who is deeply troubled when Catholic politicians publicly support legalized abortion, and then present themselves for Holy Communion, I would love to hear that conversation between Biden and the new Bishop. I tried to imagine how I would handle a conversation with the president given the opportunity for an interview. Catholic apologist Trent Horn is a big proponent of the Socratic method as the most effective way to win over someone with opposing views, so I would take that approach. Here is a list of a few questions I would love the hear President Biden address.
First of all, why are you Catholic? What does the Catholic Church mean to you?
Do you go to confession? How often?
How do you justify accepting church rule privately, but work to oppose it publicly? Don’t you see a contradiction there? How do you reconcile your Catholic faith with your policies?
Are President Joe Biden and Catholic Joe Biden two different people? Are you in conflict with yourself?
Do you believe Jesus Christ established an authoritative Church with the power to bind and loose?
The Catholic Church claims infallible authority in certain matters of faith and morals. As a Catholic, do you believe this, and if so, how do you justify promoting policies that contradict Catholic teaching?
Are you concerned about your own eternal salvation? Do you feel any responsibility for the salvation of others?
Does your conscience ever bother you? How do you form your conscience? Where do you get your sense of right and wrong?
Have you ever witnessed an abortion? Would you be willing to walk into a Planned Parenthood clinic and watch a live baby being killed in the womb?
Do you see a correlation between society’s acceptance of killing of babies in the womb and a general loss of respect for human life manifested in mass killings and inner city violence?
Do you believe in the Bible?
1 Cor 11:27-29 says the following: 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.
What does that verse mean to you?
If you were denied reception of Holy Communion to protect you from profaning the body and blood of the Lord, how would you respond?
Do you own a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church? Are you familiar Church teaching in the section on Scandal? It says the following:
II. RESPECT FOR THE DIGNITY OF PERSONS
Respect for the souls of others: scandal
2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.
2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."86 Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.87
2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.
Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible."88 This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger,89 or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.
2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"90
If you were denied reception of Holy Communion for committing the sin of scandal, how would you respond?
Do you understand why the Church, under certain conditions, chooses to excommunicate persons in order to shock them into reconsidering their standing in the eyes of God?
Oh how I would love to hear his responses. Biden’s position on abortion has changed over the years. In 1974, he was critical of the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade. He said, “I don't think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body," As late as 1983, he voted to prevent federal employees from obtaining abortion services through their health insurance. He also stated he would not support partial birth abortion.
More recently during his campaign for the presidency, Biden stated he would favor passing legislation to make Roe the law of the land. He no longer supports the Hyde amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for abortion except in rape cases, incest or life-threatening circumstances. So, what changed his mind over the years? How did his respect for human life become less civilized? Having demonstrated some fluidity of opinion over the years, let us pray that he might regain his respect for life, not only for the sake of the unborn, but also for the sake of his soul.
