Joe Biden styles himself as a “devout Catholic.” The Bishops have something to say about that.
And these Catholic Bishops slapped Joe Biden with an embarrassing loss.
President Biden pretends that calling himself Catholic makes him one.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
His administration has done everything in its power to do the exact opposite of what the Catholic Church teaches.
And finally the Bishops are hitting with a brutal reality check.
The United States bishops sent a statement this week denouncing what they called flaws in proposed government rules intended to address alleged discrimination against LGBT people in groups receiving federal Health and Human Services money.
HHS had issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) earlier in the summer that the department said was meant to “affirm civil rights and equal opportunity for people nationwide in HHS funded programs and services.”
The new policy would “protect LGBTQI+ people from discrimination in important health and human services programs” by “clarifying and reaffirming the prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in certain statutes” as they relate to grantees.
The Office of the General Counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops warned in a letter released Tuesday that the NPRM reinterprets certain federal nondiscrimination statutes in a way that could “create conflicts between the [rule’s] requirements and Catholic teaching” in the operation of Catholic charities.
The letter noted, for instance, that many Catholic charities offer “emergency shelter for victims of domestic violence,” some of which are structured as single-sex environments.
Despite this, the new guidelines would “arguably mandate [the shelters] to house biological men who identify as women in single-sex facilities,” a policy that would go against key Catholic teachings about “the immutable difference between, and dignity of, men and women.”
“Any charity that has separate men’s and women’s bathrooms or changing areas could be required to allow men to use the women’s facility and vice versa,” the letter suggested, adding further that “any charity may be required to address an employee or beneficiary by pronouns that do not correspond with his or her biological sex” in violation of Catholic beliefs.
According to the general counsel, the rule imposes “unconstitutional conditions on participation in government programs,” which “threatens our capacity to carry out” Catholic humanitarian services.
The Catholic Church believes in “an order in the natural world that was designed by its Creator,” which includes “human bodies [that] are sexually differentiated as male or female,” according to the letter, and the proposed rule “reflects anthropological premises that are simply not true.”
The policy does allow for religious conscience exemptions, according to the agency, but those provisions are written in such a way that they enable “arbitrary and capricious applications of religious freedom protections.”
In its announcement of the proposed regulation, the Department of Health and Human Services stated that comments on the policy would be accepted for 60 days after the announcement. That period will end on Monday, September 11.
HHS did not reply promptly to a request for comment on the regulation, including whether any changes would be made before its implementation.
And we know Biden sure isn’t going to make any comment on the matter. He’ll just keep peddling the lie that he is a Catholic.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
