Topic: CNSNews.com
The uber-Catholics who run CNSNews.com -- namely editor Terry Jeffrey and managing editor Michael W. Chapman, who think they're more Catholic than the pope -- has not been shy about seeking every opportunity to attack Joe Biden as insufficiently Catholic by refusing to force all Americans to submit to Catholic dictates, particularly on abortion.
Before the election, for instance, CNS dredged up a vice presidential debate from the 2012 election to complain that Biden said he "accepted that “life begins at conception” but would not interfere with women doctors aborting human lives in the womb," quoting him as saying on the Catholic Church's anti-abortion stance that "I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others." And Chapman found a random Catholic priest to rant that the "Democrat Party [sic] is the Party of Death" and that Biden is its leader. (Weird how a Catholic priest who is supposed to be above politics is spouting deliberate right-wing misnaming of the Democratic Party.)
But Jeffrey's meltdown that Biden's victory speech interrupted a Notre Dame football game -- which he declared Biden, as a "devout Catholic," should have known about and thus should have waited until at least halftime to speak -- set the tone for CNS' post-election attacks on Biden's (purported lack of) faith, as did CNS' bashing of Catholic bishops who congratulated Biden on his win.
The attacks on Biden continued:
- On Nov. 19, Chapman quoted a bishop who called on Biden "to 'repent' from his support of abortion and gay 'marriage' for 'his own salvation' and the good of the country." Curiously, Chapman referred to Biden as a "Democratic presidential candidate" even though by this time he was president-elect.
- In a Dec. 3 article, Jeffrey dug up a 2015 interview of Biden where he "spoke of his admiration for Pope Francis and what this pope was doing for the church," quoting Biden saying that the pope was "the embodiment of the Catholic social doctrine I was raised with." Jeffrey hates Pope Francis for not being right-wing enough.
- Two days later, Chapman found a bishop who thought Biden "should not receive Holy Communion" because of "his long history of supporting 'grave moral evils,' such as abortion."
- CNS published a Jan. 5 column by Catholic activist CJ Doyle blaiming Biden for being personally responsible for millions of abortions because he voted against the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork, who would have been an activist on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade (ironically demonstrating that Bork was unfit to be on the court).
- On Jan. 14, Chapman found a bishop who proclaimed that Biden "ran on a platform avidly supporting this gruesome capital punishment for innocent pre-born babies."
- In a Jan. 18 article, CNS found another bishop who thinks that any Catholic priest who gives Holy Communion to Biden "without clearly teaching the gravity of his facilitating the evil of abortion (and his approval of same-sex relationships), they do a serious disservice to their brother bishops and their people."
- The same day, Chapman located yet another priest to claim Biden should be denied communion because he "has not repented of his avowed pro-abortion policies," and "has not sought God's forgiveness for them." Of course, the priest cannot possibly know that because the sacrement of confession is veiled in secrecy.
- CNS gave a Jan. 26 column to anti-abortion activist Hugh Brown, who ranted that "There is no such thing as a liberal Catholic" and that anyone who thinks so, like Biden, "are the anti-Church spoken of by St. John Paul II."
- On Jan. 28, dishonest Catholic Bill Donohue was given space to huff that "Biden has a real problem with the most basic moral teachings of his professed religion" and that "Biden's choice of Thursday [when Catholic bishops were holding a Vigil for Life] to announce his pro-abortion executive orders makes him look like a rogue Catholic."
- Chapman penned a Feb. 1 article highlighting the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) condemned Biden's action rescinding the Mexico City policy, which had blocked U.S. support to foreign organizaitons that mentioned abortion as a choice for women, which was effectively a gag rule -- as furthering the "destruction of human lives in developing nations."
- Chapman wrote in a Feb. 3 article: "African Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, one of Nigeria's most powerful leaders, said that Democratic President Joe Biden's executive orders to promote abortion widely in the United States and abroad are contrary 'to reason' and they violate 'human dignity."' Chapman also proudly touted that Kaigama once explained "why it is morally right to imprison people who contract 'gay marriage.'"
None of these articles gave anyone a chance to counter the anti-Biden slant CNS is promoting, even though CNS' mission statement declares that it "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story."
