According to Crux, Marcello Neri, an Italian theologian who is visiting professor at the Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Studies, published an article in Settimana News claiming that the decision of President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 U. S. presidential race, who many are comparing to a political coup within the Democrat Party,  “marks the end of ‘conciliar Catholicism’ in America, in favor of a ‘populist and substantially racist’ version of the faith largely opposed to the agenda of Pope Francis.”

“Biden’s renunciation of the Democratic candidacy for the next presidential elections symbolically closes the season of American Catholicism inspired and moved by Vatican II,” Neri wrote. He also wrote that, although Joe Biden is Catholic, he never received, “a real endorsement from the American bishops.”

Neri went on to write that, “Biden represented the last gasp of a non-individualistic and non-partisan social Catholicism, imbued with gentle tones and ways as it unfolded within the country’s events, capable of holding and supporting the complexity of the American social fabric without becoming rigid in identity positions which ultimately end up leaving a portion of the population alone in coping with human and social life,” Neri wrote.

I hardly know where to begin. I’m forced to wonder if Neri has spent any significant time in the United States, or at least if he’s spent any time outside the bubble of academia.

First of all, why should Biden receive an endorsement by the U. S. bishops? Is it the job of the bishops to endorse candidates for president? Neri is from Italy. Perhaps in Italy the practice is common, but not so in the U. S. I don’t recall the U. S. bishops, as a group, ever endorsing a candidate for president. In fact, here is an article from the California Catholic Conference explaining why the Church does not endorse political candidates. However, an obvious reason the bishops may not have felt duty-bound to endorse Biden is because Biden takes policy positions that are contrary to Catholic doctrine, such as his strong support for abortion, his strong support for gender ideology and same-sex marriage, and his attempts to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, sex-change operations, sterilizations, and euthanasia. Perhaps Neri thinks the bishops should endorse Biden simply because Biden is Catholic. But that is not the American way. We don’t apply religious litmus tests to candidates, and I’m sure the bishops are much more concerned about Biden’s policies than they are about his wearing a rosary around his wrist. Neri ought to be ashamed for suggesting that the bishops ought to have endorsed Biden simply because Biden says he is Catholic.

The idea that Joe Biden represents a “non-individualistic and non-partisan social Catholicism” is laughable. Joe Biden represents nothing if not his own ambitions, and he is only too happy to set aside his Catholic principals to attain whatever political gain he can manage. That is the opposite of “non-individualistic.” Biden is the embodiment of individualism, in that he embraces the Catholic doctrines he likes and rejects those he doesn’t like. He is the poster child for “cafeteria Catholicism.” Joe Biden is “non-partisan”? He is in bed with the extreme progressive left of his party, with the teachers unions, and with gender ideologues. Oh, and I like that bit Neri writes about not becoming “rigid in identity positions.” Identity politics is Biden’s calling card. He even chose his vice-president on no other grounds than that she checked all the correct identity boxes. Neri writes that Biden’s policies prevent “leaving a portion of the population alone in coping with human and social life.” He should tell that to the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who have crossed the border and been bused or flown to communities that don’t have the resources to provide for them, and for whom the federal government is offering no assistance. Or the thousands who have been killed by fentanyl and other drugs that have drowned the country because of Biden’s open door border policy. Or the soldiers who were killed in the atrocious withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as their families.

Neri’s analysis seems to rely on a stereotype of a Democrat Party that used to be, or likely never was but created the image of being. That was a Democrat Party strongly aligned with the Catholic Church, where worker’s concerns mattered, where the middle class mattered, where school children mattered, where civil rights mattered. If that Democrat Party ever really existed, it is long gone now. Now the Democrat Party, and Joe Biden (and Kamala Harris with him), are in the hands of those who support terrorists groups like Hamas, who support abortion from conception to birth with no restrictions (and sometimes after birth!), who support exposing third-graders to sexually-explicit material and confusing them about biology, who support open borders and, at least for some, extending the franchise to illegal immigrants, who support forcing Americans to buy electric vehicles they can’t afford and without the infrastructure to support them, who support shutting down free speech for those with whom they disagree, who support getting rid of your home appliances and even air conditioning, who support a climate change agenda that does little to reduce world temperatures but does a lot to limit American manufacturing (as opposed to China and India, who can continue to do whatever they want), who support a limited interpretation of religious freedom that allows the government to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, who support the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the court system against political opponants, who support children receiving hormone therapy despite no research supporting its benefits. The list goes on. If this is Neri’s vision of “conciliar Catholicism,” then I, for one, am glad it’s over.

However, I don’t share Neri’s vision of “conciliar Catholicism.” In my mind, “conciliar Catholicism” means that the local bishop and church are supreme, within certain limits. That the liturgy ought to be a meaningful and reverent reflection of the faith we hold. That Catholics ought to be about evangelizing the world in word and deed with the good news of Jesus Christ. That the Church ought to be forefront in demanding the protection of human rights from womb to tomb. That Catholic politicians, and all Catholics, ought to have their politics shaped by their faith rather than their faith shaped by their politics.

For the life of me, I don’t know why so many Catholics feel beholden to accommodating the contemporary culture. Neri’s analysis of Biden’s exit from the presidential campaign couldn’t be more blind. We need Catholics who, without necessarily endorsing one candidate or party over another, speak the truth about how to apply the values of the gospel to the real challenges of modern life. That has always been the challenge of Catholics in politics. It’s just that some have forgotten or rejected that challenge. I believe Joe Biden rejected that challenge a long time ago in favor of how to apply the values of his political party to the challenges of modern life, and how to take advantage of every opportunity he could to gain influence, power, and money along the way. Do I think Biden is corrupt? Yes, to his core. I’m glad he will no longer be our president, even if the other candidates inspire no great confidence in me, either. We are good to be rid of him, and of whatever vision of “conciliar Catholicism” Neri thinks he represents.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.