CSM: Joe Biden and his Catholic faith

[pnwmom]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0827/p01s07-uspo.html?page=3

SNIP

In the Biden family, children were taught to respect the habit, but not necessarily the person in it. As a boy, Biden took endless ribbing from classmates for a stutter he later overcame. Much of the time, the nuns tried to help. But when a seventh-grade teacher mimicked Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-Biden's stutter in front of the class, his mother, Jean, demanded a meeting with the principal and the offending nun. "If you ever speak to my son like that again, I'll come back and rip that bonnet off your head," she said. Later, when then-Senator Biden told her he was going to visit the pope, she said: "Don't you kiss his ring."

SNIP

Biden was one of the first Catholic politicians of the Vatican II generation. From 1962 to 1965, the Vatican Council II produced documents that opened the door to ecumenical dialogue, freedom of religion and conscience, and greater involvement of the laity in affairs of the church, including saying the mass in English and more emphasis on individual Bible study.

"I was raised at a time when the Catholic Church was fertile with new ideas and open discussion about some of the basic social teaching of the Catholic Church," Biden says. "Questioning was not criticized; it was encouraged."

He recalls a question in a ninth-grade theology class at Archmere. "How many of you questioned the doctrine of transubstantiation?" the teacher asked, referring to the teaching that the bread and wine change into the body and blood of Christ during the Eucharist. No hands were raised. Finally, Biden raised his. "Well, we have one bright man, at least," the teacher said.

The teacher didn't say criticizing the church was good. "He led me to see that if you cannot defend your faith to reason, then you have a problem," Biden says.

SNIP

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. How does he deal with supporting Roe v. Wade?

Have there been attempts by RW catholics in Delaware to ban him from communion?

They are bound to try this in plenty of diocese around the country as he campaigns nationally.

That's assuming of course that he attends mass and takes communion. I don't know that he does.

[pnwmom]

2. From reading the whole article, I'm sure he attends mass and takes communion.

Kerry still does. He has support from his own diocese, even if there are outsiders who are complaining.

This is what the article in the OP says on this subject:

"There are those who say that Catholics should be robots: There's a formula, and if we don't follow that formula, we shouldn't present ourselves for communion on Sunday morning, says Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. "That's an absolute misuse of Catholic teaching," he says, referring to the call of several Catholic bishops in the 2004 campaign to deny communion to Senator Kerry and other Catholic politicians who did not vote in line with Vatican teachings on abortion.

Without taking a position on how Catholics should vote, Biden makes a case for staying connected to the church and its culture. "If I were an ordained priest, I'd be taking some issue with some of the more narrow interpretations of the Gospel being taken now," Biden says. "But my church is more than 2,000 years old. There's always been a tug of war among prelates and informed lay members."

Biden is troubled, too, by ongoing sexual-abuse scandals involving children within the church. But he says his commitment to church remains unchanged. "This is my church as much as it is the church of a cardinal, bishop, or janitor, and I'm not going anywhere," he said. I care a great deal about my faith."

[OmahaBlueDog]

4. So we can look forward to his being denied communion sometime between now & November

I know they've denied Sebelius. I'm sure someone will make a point of it with Biden.

[pnwmom]

5. It hasn't happened with Kerry. Or with Guiliani, for that matter.

It's not a common thing.

[OmahaBlueDog]

6. I know both have been threatened with denial

I'm not sure with Kerry if it was ever actually denied. I know the Archbishop in Saint Louis (IIRC, the same one who wanted Coach Rick Majerus fired for appearing at a Hillary rally) said he'd deny Kerry communion when campaigning in the area.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/06/politics/main610547.shtml

http://www.tldm.org/news6/vaticanwarnsjohnkerrynocommunion.htm


And similar issues with Rudy:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24359892/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/03/politics/p121125D37.DTL

[pnwmom]

9. Yeah, that one archbishop threatens everyone. He's a jerk. n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

7. Oh the usual suspects, in love with opportunities for

face time themselves, will undoubtedly attempt to make an issue of it - watch when he travels to MO, for instance...

They ought to be soundly ignored. They really just love the sound of their own voices.

[OmahaBlueDog]

13. Agreed. I don't think the tactic resonates with most Catholics

[JerseygirlCT]

14. Me either. nt

[sakura]

3. A Vatican II Catholic.

I have to say, I really like this guy.

[eshfemme]

8. What most Christians neglect to remember is that skepticism was actually a basic tenet of good

Christian scholarship. St Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and others are celebrated Christian philosophers and scholars who are known for their ability to question and in the act of doing so, strengthened their own faiths. Although I am agnostic, I can see the merit of such an action and I mourn that more Christians don't realize this.

[pnwmom]

10. This is a strong belief of the Jesuits, and an important part

of Jesuit education.

[JerseygirlCT]

12. Which is why they've got the reputation for being such good educators

can't have that and lock-step authoritarianism together.

[JerseygirlCT]

11. Critical to Christianity, I agree. nt