LSN: Biden has violated fundamental Catholic teaching at least 32 times, report to bishops says; COGwriter: But is abortion truly one of them?

Joe Biden (Official Whitehouse photo)

LifeSiteNews reported the following:

Biden has violated fundamental Catholic teaching at least 32 times, report to bishops says

June 10, 2021

A new report by the Catholic League has identified at least 32 times that Joe Biden has violated fundamental Catholic moral teaching since being inaugurated.

The report, which was sent to the U.S. bishops, “outlines many instances where [Biden’s] decision-making on important moral issues is at variance with established Catholic teachings,” Catholic League president Bill Donohue said on Monday. “It has been sent to all the bishops in the United States,” Donohue said.

Rejection of Church teaching on matters of prudential judgement is not considered in the report, but rather “non-negotiable principles of Catholic belief on vital issues such as human life, religious liberty, and the complementarity of men and women,” Thomas D. Williams, PhD, noted.

The Biden administration’s decisions flagged by the Catholic League constitute some of the grossest attacks on life, family, and religious freedoms in American history. Around one third of them were enacted within ten days of Biden taking office.

Those initial actions include executive orders reopening the military to transgender individuals, institutionalizing transgenderism in children’s schools and sports, and requiring federal agencies to treat sexual orientation and “gender identity” as “protected classes.” A statement by the White House two days after the inauguration celebrated Roe v. Wade as a “foundational precedent” and described support for the ruling as a litmus test for judicial nominees. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biden-has-violated-fundamental-catholic-teaching-at-least-32-times-report-to-bishops-says

Some of these matters have been reported about here on this COGwriter Church of God News page.

Now regarding abortion, was opposition to it an original catholic belief?

Yes.

Here is something from my free online book Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church:

Abortion

One of the earliest claimed Christian writings outside of the Bible, the Didache (believed to be from the first or early second century), contains the following instructions:

You shall not murder … you shall not be sexually promiscuous … you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide. (Didache, II, 2 as translated in Holmes, p. 253)

Abortion was also considered to be murder by those that professed Christ in the second and third centuries. Notice what Tertullian wrote in the late second century:

… Christians … they accounted it murder for any woman by evil arts to procure abortion, to stifle the embryo, to kill a child, in a manner before it is alive. (Tertullian. Apology, Chapter 9 as cited in Cave W. Primitive Christianity. Henry Cary, ed. Oxford, 1840, pp. 280-281)

But in regard to child murder, as it does not matter whether it is committed for a sacred object, or merely at one’s own self-impulse. (Tertullian. Apology. Chapter 9)

So even in the late second century, those who professed Christ considered abortion to be murder.

Now, although even Roman Catholics believed that into the third century, one of their bishops, now called Pope Callistus I, did not.

Continuing in my book Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church:

This was also the case in the third century when Roman Catholic saint Hippolytus condemned a Bishop of Rome named Callistus:

Callistus … permitted females, if they were unwedded, and burned with passion at an age at all events unbecoming, or if they were not disposed to overturn their own dignity through a legal marriage, that they might have whomsoever they would choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free, and that a woman, though not legally married, might consider such a companion as a husband. Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time! (Hippolytus. Refutation of All Heresies, Book IX, Chapter VII. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5).

So, early religious writers considered abortion to be murder. And fornication to be adultery. The Bible does not give anyone the right to commit fornication, adultery, nor murder. The idea that abortion is murder is an original catholic belief, despite abortion’s acceptance by Bishop of Rome, “Pope” Callistus.

The Catholic Encyclopedia reported:

Callistus allowed the lower clergy to marry, and permitted noble ladies to marry low persons and slaves, which by the Roman law was forbidden; he had thus given occasion for infanticide (Chapman J. Pope Callistus I)

Callistus was not the only Greco-Roman leader to permit abortion.

The Encyclopedia of Catholicism has the following:

Like their Jewish contemporaries, second century Christian communities rejected abortion. Many early Christian writings, like the Didache …, preach against abortion. …

Aristotle said that human ensoulment did not take place until 40 days after conception for males and 80 for females.

Aquinas accepted Aristotle’s … theory of the late ensoulment … he saw abortion of the unsouled fetus as a sin against marriage, but not murder. (Flinn FK. Encyclopedia of Catholicism. Facts on File, 2007, pp. 3-4)

The famous medieval jurist Gratian wrote, “He is not a murderer who brings about abortion before the soul is in the body.”

It is important to note that for roughly 500 years the Catholic church followed the teaching of Aristotle and St. Thomas on the status of the fetus. The Council of Vienne (1312) under Pope Clement V affirmed Aristotle’s teaching on delayed hominization. (Flinn FK. Joe Biden, abortion and the Catholic vote. The Source, Washington University in St. Louis, October 24, 2008)

The above argument is similiar to the argument abortion-pushers made in the 1970s that the fetus was not yet a human. But, of course, the fetus is an unborn human. As far as ensoulment goes, being alive would make a fetus a “living soul” (cf. Genesis 2:7, DRB).

Here is information related to various Roman Catholic leaders:

St. Augustine declared that abortion is not homicide but was a sin if it was intended to conceal fornication or adultery. During the period of 600-1500, illicit intercourse was deemed by the Irish Canons to be a greater sin than abortion … (Abortion and Catholic thought. The little-known history. Conscience. Autumn 1996;17(3):2-5.)

Gregory VI (1045-6) said, “He is not a murderer who brings about abortion before the soul is in the body.” (Hunt DA. Women Rides the Beast. Harvest House Publishers, Eugene (OR), 1994, pp. 519-520)

{c.} 1213 … Pope Innocent III … denied abortion was murder. …

Saint Jerome is a Doctor of the Church. But Jerome wrote:

The seed gradually takes shape in the uterus and [abortion] does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and limbs.

… Church canon law until 1917 accepted delayed ensoulment. (McCloskey J. The Pope Who Said Abortion Is Not Murder. CreateSpace, 2015, pp. 14, 23, 84)

In the fifteenth century, moralists began to ask whether it was not possible in certain circumstances to get rid of the foetus without fault … Some went further. They said it was permissable to save a mother’s life even after the foetus was humanized …

Gregory XIII (1572-85) said it was not homicide to kill an embryo of less than forty days since it was not human … His successor, the tempestuous Sixtus V, who rewrote the Bible, disagreed entirely. In his Bull Effraenatum of 1588, he said all abortions for whatever reason were homicide and were penalized by excommunication reserved to the Holy See. Immediately after Sixtus died, Gregory XIV realized that, in the current state of theological opinion, Sixtus’ view was too severe. In an almost unique decision, he said Sixtus’ censures were to be treated as if he had never issued them (De Rosa, Peter. Vicars of Christ. Poolbeg Press, Dublin, 2000, pp 374-375).

The Church of God position has not changed as true Christians have always opposed abortion.

So while being opposed to abortion was an original catholic belief, and one still held by the Continuing Church of God, it is not true to state that the Church of Rome has always been staunchly opposed to abortion.

Hence, abortion opposition does not look to be a “fundamental belief” of the Roman Catholic Church.

That is partially why political leaders such as US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and US President Joe Biden believe they can claim to be Roman Catholic, while at the same time they push abortions and other immoral policies.

This is NOT a defense of Joe Biden’s position, but pointed out to show that the Church of Rome has ‘skeletons in its closet’ when it comes to issues like abortion.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church Did the original “catholic church” have doctrines held by the Continuing Church of God? Did Church of God leaders uses the term “catholic church” to ever describe the church they were part of? Here are links to related sermons: Original Catholic Church of God? , Original Catholic Doctrine: Creed, Liturgy, Baptism, Passover, and What Type of Catholic was Polycarp of Smyrna?, Tradition, Holy Days, Salvation, Dress, & Celibacy, and Early Heresies and Heretics.
Abortion, the Bible, and a Woman’s Right to Choose Do you know what the Bible teaches on this? Has the Roman Catholic Church allowed abortions? What about the real Church of God? Some may wish to view the YouTube videos: Abortion and Birth Control: History and Scriptures. Abortion, the Bible, and US Debt, American Infanticide, Euthanasia: Mercy killing or murder?, and Land of ‘Free’ Abortions and Debt.
Cross-dressing and other assaults against your children. What should you do? Is there an agenda to turn your children and/or grandchildren away from biblical morality and towards practices promoted by homosexuals? What does the Bible teach about cross-dressing? What should parents do? If there is an agenda, what has been going on? There are also three YouTube videos related to this, titled Transgender ‘Woe to those who call evil good’ and Cross dressing and Other Assaults Against Your Children and USA pushing gender confusion.
The Bible Condemns Homosexuality “Same-sex marriage” for “gays” and lesbians is becoming more acceptable to many. What does the Bible teach about homosexuality and the LGBTQ agenda? Can homosexuals change? A related video sermon is titled: What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? A short video is available titled: Gay Gene? Born That Way?
Biden-Harris: Prophecies and Destruction Can the USA survive two full presidential terms? In what ways are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris apocalyptic? This book has hundreds of prophecies and scriptures to provide details. A Kindle version is also available and you do not need an actual Kindle device to read it. Why? Amazon will allow you to download it to almost any device: Please click HERE to download one of Amazon s Free Reader Apps. After you go to your free Kindle reader app (or if you already have one or a Kindle), you can go to: Biden-Harris: Prophecies and Destruction (Kindle) to get the book in seconds.