Joe Biden and Pope Francis

Joe Biden and Pope Francis

On December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences for all federal prisoners with the exception of three. ABC, as usual, broadcast verbatim – and without any critical questions – the press release from the White House justifying Mr. Biden’s actions. After noting that activists, including Pope Francis, have called for an end to the death penalty in America, ABC quoted Biden as saying:

“But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”

ABC continued:

“Biden’s decision comes after some notable figures and many activists called for Biden to take action. Pope Francis has called for the sentences of Americans on death row to be commuted during his Angelus address in October, the Vatican News Sources reported.

“’Today, I feel compelled to ask all of you to pray for the inmates on death row in the United States,” the Pope said at the time, according to the report. “Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.’

“Biden is a devout Catholic and is set next month to visit the Holy See during a trip to Italy, where he will also have an audience with the pope.”

Look, there is hardly a word in the article by ABC that doesn’t reek of lies, embellishment, and hypocrisy. So let’s work our way through it. The claim is that Mr. Biden was “guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President. . .” But even a cursory look at Mr. Biden’s history gives the lie to everything in that sentence. First, nothing in Mr. Biden’s experience as a “public defender” would serve as a reason for opposing the death penalty. There is no record of Mr. Biden trying any major felony cases let alone any capital punishment cases. Second, during Mr. Biden’s terms in the Senate he sponsored and campaigned for the 1994 Crime Bill which increased the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty thus enlarging rather than limiting the use of the death penalty. And finally there is no record of Mr. Biden seeking congressional approval for the elimination, or even the limitation, of the use of the death penalty. This is just another manipulation by Mr. Biden’s staff who have been seeking their own personal goals while using the diminished capacity of Mr. Biden to usurp his powers. Somewhere buried in the United States Code there has to be a prohibition against the usurpation of presidential power – a fact that has been going on for over two years as Mr. Biden’s cognitive abilities diminish. Congress owes the American people both an investigation and a determination of the specific charges to be leveled against those who have taken it upon themselves to exercise the powers of the President. If you cannot find an applicable code you could start with the provisions relating to treason – which oddly enough carries the death penalty.

Next, it is made to appear that Mr. Biden was responding to the world’s number one hypocrite – Pope Francis – as a rationale for commuting all of those death penalties. It’s very doubtful that Mr. Biden, given his diminished capacity, was even aware of the Pope’s comments led alone responding to them. Be that as it may, let’s first note that Pope Francis condemned only the United States and failed to mention that Italy which surrounds Vatican City has the death penalty and so does Pope Francis’ native Argentina. I am unaware of any time when Pope Francis has condemned the use of government executions in either Italy or Argentina, or for that matter the blood thirsty regimes of Iran, Russia, Communist China, Cuba, Venezuela, or Nicaragua but then again if you condemn Iran they may kill you and the rest are all socialist/communist countries.

Pope Francis is a disciple of liberation theology which was made popular by progressives back in the 60’s as they tried to wed the atheist philosophy of the socialists/communists with the selective teaching of the Church. It didn’t work because there is no common cause between atheism and Christianity – one is a socio-economic political philosophy that is only sustainable under a totalitarian regime while the other is a spiritual/religious philosophy that can only exist where there is free expression. – and in many instance as a resistance to totalitarian regimes.

And finally, this continuing gibberish about Mr. Biden being a devout Catholic. Mr. Biden is a decades long advocate for taxpayer funded abortions on demand. A policy that has resulted in more than sixty five million abortions in the United State and continuing at a rate of about one million per year. The Catholic Church has been unflinching in its opposition to abortion. The Church has likewise condemned the concept of supporting pro-abortion candidates on the basis of some “proportional” response. There is none. Mr. Biden specifically runs on, and raises money specifically because of his support for taxpayer funded abortion on demand. As a member of Congress he has supported pro-abortion legislation and appropriations, and as president he has approved legislation and appropriations doing the same.

You can’t have it both ways. You cannot be a devout Catholic and support abortion. At best Mr. Biden is a nominal Catholic or better said a Catholic-in-name-only. As he draws closer to his final days his crises of conscious becomes more acute. ABC speculates that Mr. Biden is going to seek solace from Pope Francis for all of the negativity surrounding his upcoming departure from the presidency. I hope that Mr. Biden uses his time with Pope Francis to seek forgiveness and that Pope Francis can leave aside his dislike for America long enough to counsel Mr. Biden as a parish priest instead of a socialist politician.