Pope Francis greets then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the Vatican in this April 29, 2016. / Vatican Media

Denver, Colo., Apr 29, 2021 / 21:29 pm (CNA).

Prominent Catholics are passionately responding to a recent Washington Post tweet which said “A rising group of right-wing U.S. Catholic bishops is colliding with a very Catholic president who supports abortion rights.”

Brian Burch, President of Catholic Vote criticized the media’s exaltation of Biden’s supposed Catholicity. “Joe Biden’s press secretary routinely refers to him as ‘devout.’ And without skipping a beat, the Washington Post calls him ‘very Catholic.’”  

“For decades public officials have flouted the Church’s call to protect innocent human life,” Burch said. “Now we face the scandal of a president who professes to be Catholic but calls for the destruction of innocent unborn children, and he forces those who object to pay for it anyway.”

The April 29 Washington Post article noted that there is a deep political divide within the Catholic Church. Specifically, the Post brought to light the heated debate within the Church over President Biden’s permissibility to receive Holy Communion while he publicly supports abortion and many other laws which defy Church teaching. 

 “The bishops need two-thirds of their conference to move forward with a document, and experts disagree about what two-thirds of the men will agree upon when it comes to this topic,” the article said, referring to debate on a pro-abortion politician’s reception of communion. 

“The Washington Post realizes perhaps better than some Catholics that if the bishops spoke with courage and unity, that hearts and minds would change on abortion,” Burch said. “And it’s clear that the Washington Post isn’t just covering this story, they’re deeply invested in influencing this debate.”

Burch’s Catholic Vote created a timeline for Catholics, showing all the instances in which President Biden has publicly opposed Catholic teachings.

Grazie Pozo Christie, a Policy Advisor with The Catholic Association, also denounced Biden’s defiance of Catholic teaching.  

“The President’s decision to present himself as a devout Catholic, while simultaneously advancing an agenda openly hostile to foundational church teachings from his unique position of power, creates confusion and division” Christie said. 

Christie affirmed the bishops’ concern that the message Biden’s contradictory lifestyle is sending, causes pain and unclarity to their flocks.

 “It is up to each individual bishop to discern the best course of action for this unfortunate situation which the president himself has created,” Christie told CNA. 

Commenting on Biden’s first 100 days in office, former Democratic representative Daniel Lipinski told EWTN Prolife Weekly’s Catherine Hadro on Thursday that Catholics should be different. “Catholics really have an obligation, and an understanding, of what the dignity of the individual means,” he said. “We need to live that out in public life. We should be Catholic first.”

 In President Biden’s first 100 days of office he has pushed an aggressive pro-abortion agenda overturning many of the Trump administration’s protections of the unborn, reversing restrictions on federally-funded research using fetal tissue and organs of aborted babies, revoking the Mexico City Policy that prohibits direct funding of abortions abroad, and nominating a slew of pro-choice politicians to key positions in government. 

This is in addition to Biden withdrawing support for faith-based women’s shelters that make placements based on sex rather than gender identity, permitting the LGBTI envoy from the Department of State to fly “Pride” flags, appealing the district court to keep transgender mandates in place that destroy conscience protections for medical personnel, signing an executive order mandating single-sex dorms or bathrooms to be available to members of the opposite biological sex at religious colleges and universities, and effectively halting the resettlement of refugees.