Joe Biden claims he is a “practicing Catholic” and that his religion “defines who I am”. So does he keep practicing until he gets it right? I don’t claim to be an expert on Catholicism or any religion for that matter, but let me give you what Biden said during the VP debate:

“My religion defines who I am, and I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. […] With regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as what we call a [de fede] doctrine. Life begins at conception in the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life. But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others. […] I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that women can’t control their body.” from the Washington Post

I won’t even pretend to weigh in on Biden’s position other than to ask this: Can a “practicing Catholic” really support abortion even though he personally believes it is wrong? . Admittedly I used to hold this position as well. I defined my self as pro choice/life, abortion was wrong but it is also not my place to not interfere with someone else’s life. I have since changed my position to being totally pro-life. Abortion is murder, taking an innocent life is wrong no matter what. If you consider yourself to be Catholic, you can not support abortion in any way shape or form. This means you can not support any other politician (say Barack Obama) who does. You can not vote “Pro-Choice”, supporting pro-choice legislation.

Biden refers to something called the “De Fede Doctrine”. A search of several Catholic sources, including the Vatican, returns no results, so I have no idea what he is talking about (but then we see that often with Biden).  So what is it? I think I will have to do some more digging.

The other thing which bothers me about Biden’s statement, which all Progressives love to repeat is that Catholics are telling women how to control their bodies. Again, I could be wrong, but I don’t see the church doing that at all. Does the church say abortion is wrong? Absolutely. Does the church say women shouldn’t be using contraception? Absolutely. Is the church saying women and men shouldn’t be having pre-marital sex? Absolutely. But they are not saying you can’t do any of these things. You certainly can, just remember, if you believe in God and in your Resurrection  if you make these choices you won’t be ending up where you might think without some serious God butt-kissing, if even then.

My take on what the church is saying is do what you want, it’s okay, just don’t expect any eternal reward when your end has come.

So Joe, you keep practicing and who knows, maybe some day you’ll get it right. God is pretty patient, he’ll let you keep trying.