Christian Science Monitor Profile of Sen. Joseph Biden's "Frank and Abiding Faith"

The Christian Science Monitor's puff piece claims that Joe Biden's "Catholic ideals of fighting the abuse of power have shaped the life and politics of the presidential hopeful":

Washington - From his childhood bedroom in a treeless industrial suburb of Wilmington, Del., Joe Biden looked out on Archmere, an Italianate mansion and Catholic boys high school that he called "the object of my deepest desire, my Oz."

Archmere was also the home of financier John Jacob Raskob, who ran the 1928 campaign of Gov. Al Smith (D) of New York, the first Roman Catholic to become the presidential nominee of a major US political party.

Against long odds, Senator Biden aims to be No. 4. He sees faith and values, as well as his own deep experience in public policy, as a key to that race.

"The animating principle of my faith, as taught to me by church and home, was that the cardinal sin was abuse of power," he said in an interview with the Monitor. "It was not only required as a good Catholic to abhor and avoid abuse of power, but to do something to end that abuse." [ED.: And yet, you fight to defend - indeed, it could be said that your role in "borking" Judge Robert Bork is, in part, responsible for - the greatest abuse of power in the world today: the murder of the most innocent and powerless among us via legalized abortion. Save your sanctimonious ******** about defending the powerless, you disingenuous hypocrite!]

The issues that have most engaged Biden in public life draw on those teachings [ED.: Yeah, too bad you've been engaged on the wrong side when it comes to abortion and ESCR.], from halting violence against women to genocide [ED.: Somehow the genocide of the unborn seems to have escaped his notice]. At a personal level, his faith provides him peace, he says. "I get comfort from carrying my rosary [ED.: In case I need to shove it down any Republican throats.], going to mass every Sunday. It's my time alone," he says.

But the interface of faith and policy has long been problematic for Catholic presidential hopefuls. Governor Smith faced withering criticism over whether Catholic politicians are obliged by their church to take policy orders from Rome. John F. Kennedy famously disavowed "outside religious pressures or dictates," swept the Catholic vote, and won the presidency. By the time another J.F.K. from Massachusetts ran for president in 2004, the ground had shifted. Sen. John F. Kerry lost the Catholic vote because many of his faith questioned whether he was Catholic enough, given his strong support for abortion rights.

But Biden believes he can bridge much of that divide. "My views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine," [ED.: What a piece of work! "Totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine" - yeah, abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, etc., etc., are just what Catholic social teaching calls for. What chutzpah!] says Biden, a six-term Democratic senator from Delaware. "There are elements within the church who say that if you are at odds with any of the teachings of the church, you are at odds with the church. I think the church is bigger than that." [ED.: Self-serving tripe.]

***
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." [ED.: Nice. After all, he's only the Pope. Why should a "Catholic" show any respect for him?]

***
"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. [ED.: Between his mother and this teacher, it looks like Biden had a nice AmCath education and upbringing to help set him down the primrose path.]

***
On the Senate floor, the tough votes also came early and often. In his first term, Biden faced the first of many votes on whether to curtail abortion rights for women. As a freshman Democrat, he was approached by all sides. He told them that while he personally opposes abortion [ED.: I think if I hear another Catholic politician use that tired and discredited phrase, it's going to be I who will be shoving my Rosary beads down someone's throat!], he would not vote to overthrow the US Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that gave women the right to terminate a pregnancy. Nor, however, would he vote to use federal funds to fund abortion.

"I don't think I have the right to impose my view – on something I accept as a matter of faith – on the rest of society," he writes in his autobiography. [ED.: So, the prohibition against murdering people is just "something I accept as a matter of faith"?]

[More]

(emphasis and editorial commentary added)


UPDATE
Cross-posted at Catholics in the Public Square.


UPDATE #2
A commenter over at Catholics in the Public Square doesn't like what I have to say about Sen. Biden (emphasis and editorial commentary added):

I don't think I've ever read such ugliness on a blog before. [ED.: Riiiiiight. Ever spend any time over at Kos or Democrat Underground? Hell, even a devout Catholic like Mark Shea, when he gets on a roll, his stuff is waaaaaay more inflammatory than anything you'll read here. Besides, your comment is rich coming from a defender of a man who threatened to shove his Rosary beads down Republicans' throats.] Your views on abortion have obviously blinded you to all the good things Senator Biden has done as a member of the Senate [ED.: Obviously.] -- helping stop genocide in Bosnia, fighting for passage of the Violenece [sic] Against Women Act, and so much more.

If you call yourself a Christian, you are truly a disgrace to the basic idea of Christianity. [ED.: I will be the first to admit that I - a sinner - am unworthy of the title "Christian".] You can't even carry on a civil discussion about a man who so obviously tries to live his faith every day as he sees his duty. [ED.: Obviously.]

Shame on you. [ED.: Yes, don't look at the full-bodied shamefulness of a man who professes the Catholic faith and claims to defend the powerless against "abuse of power", yet who wholeheartedly supports the legalized murder of the most powerless among us; rather, look at the "ugly" and "shameful" way people point out the man's hypocrisy.]

Look here. When a man proclaims that his "views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine" and professes that "the animating principle of my faith" is to defend the powerless against "the abuse of power", but then has this to say about abortion ...

Joe Biden, a Delaware senator, got the next abortion question and indicated he "strongly supported Roe v. Wade" which allowed unlimited abortion throughout pregnancy.

He said he would "make sure that the people I sent to be nominated to the Supreme Court shared my values" and supported pro-abortion rulings like Roe.

"That's why I led the fight to defeat Bork. Thank God he's not on the court or this would -- Roe v. Wade would be gone by now," Biden added about the battle over a pro-life nominee for the high court defeated in the 1980s.

Biden pointed to his opposition to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, all of whom voted to uphold the partial-birth abortion ban.

... you can damn well bet that I'm going to point out his hypocrisy and disingenuous sanctimony.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Joe Biden Says Democrats Have Been Too Fearful to Discuss Religion

Blunt Talk from Catholic Joe Biden

Democratic Candidates for President Give Unanimous Pro-Abortion Views

During First Debate, Democrats Back Abortion, Criticize Efforts to Save Terri Schiavo

Media Sycophant Says: "Joe Biden Does Something Heroic"

Could You Imagine a Prominent Republican Senator Saying This About Gen. Colin Powell?

The Ego of the Senate

Lie of the Day

Biden: Chance of Filibuster on Alito Stronger

Biden: "I'm Going To Shove My Rosary Beads Down Their Throat"

Biden To Roberts: "You're The Best"

Letter to the Editor