Could the Pope place a President Biden under personal interdict?

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Right. And at the risk of offending some of our friends across the pond in Old Blighty, let’s not forget that at the time of Henry VIII the entire group of Bishops for the entire country ‘caved’ and rejected Rome, with the exception of St. John Fisher (and we know what happened to HIM. Rather than have the Pope send him the ‘red hat’ of a cardinal, Henry decided to take Fisher’s head off completely.).

Of course going back even further the 12 apostles had one completely reject Jesus at the time of trial, and the other 11 desert Him (though St. John managed to make it to the foot of the cross).

We can all fail God at some point, but the apostles managed to get themselves together with God’s help, by not continuing to reject Him. The bishops in England may have not stood together at Henry’s time such that today the old sees of Canterbury, York, etc are now “Anglican” but there remained pockets of Catholic faithful and there are still Catholics in England.

Our US bishops may have their footnote in history for decades of, um, ‘worldly compliance’ but they have the opportunity to come back and be the kind of shepherds that will lead to a huge outpouring and reigniting of Catholic Faith. I pray it’s so.
 
Yes but I think that’s a misunderstanding of the canon, which doesn’t judge individuals but rather public actons.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
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JimG:
If Biden becomes president, how many USCCB bishops will announce that he is to be denied communion in their diocese? Not many, I suspect, will be willing to enforce canon law. The USCCB has become a social justice bureaucracy rather than a group of Catholic bishops dedicated to handing down the deposit of faith and protecting Catholic doctrine.
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I would have every expectation that the bishops of Atlanta, Charleston, and Charlotte would do this.

Perhaps secede from the USCCB and establish their own “Southeastern Bishops’ Conference”? Do national bishops’ conference have any canonical status? Provided for in canon law?
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National bishops’ conferences were specified by the Council Fathers of Vatican II. The conferences are to have no doctrinal authority over ordinary bishops, but they do approve and organize such things as local modifications to Canon Law, the GIRM, Liturgy of the Hours, etc. They are quite canonical, but they differ from “synods of bishops” that would have doctrinal authority like the ones that meet in Rome every few years.
 
We have explained dozens of times on this forum that a person baptized Catholic is a Catholic, even if they reject their faith later in life.

Joe Biden appears to have received not just Baptism but all the sacraments of initiation, and he also practices his faith by regularly attending Mass and praying. He is also married in the Church.

As convenient as it would be to just say “oh he’s not a real Catholic”, he is Catholic and we are stuck with that fact.

If sworn in, he will be the second Catholic President in US History.
 
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Yes–no doctrinal authority.

But I learned from working in the government that getting things done by committee often yields less than satisfactory results.
 
Bishop Robert McElroy:
I feel compelled to address one very sad dimension of the election cycle we are witnessing — the public denial of candidates’ identity as Catholics because of a specific policy position they have taken. Such denials are injurious because they reduce Catholic social teaching to a single issue. But they are offensive because they constitute an assault on the meaning of what it is to be Catholic.
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Tis_Bearself said:
As convenient as it would be to just say “oh he’s not a real Catholic”, he is Catholic and we are stuck with that fact.
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Yes indeed he is. So he has no excuse.

Someone can say about most or all of us, we are Catholic “but”. Biden though, as a Catholic should not have run for President because of his “but”.
 
I doubt it would matter, because historically Christian Presidents have abstained from taking communion until after leaving office and I doubt Biden would be an exception to that trend.

The reason Presidents did this was because the office demands it’s occupant take actions that weigh heavily on the conscience.
 
Yes, Abp Vigano said last summer that a Pope should quash the whole V2 Council which he sees as heretical. He was disagreeing with Abp Schneider who thought only parts of V2 were bad and there was still some value in it.

Just more extreme talk from an Archbishop who seems to specialize in making extreme pronouncements. I must say that at this point, I don’t find anything he says credible.
 
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BornInMarch said:
I doubt it would matter, because historically Christian Presidents have abstained from taking communion until after leaving office and I doubt Biden would be an exception to that trend.
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Huh?
First of all, Catholics “receive” Communion, they don’t “take” it.

Second, Catholics are required by the church to receive at least once a year.

Third, Catholic Communion means something quite different to us than it does to non-Catholic and non-Orthodox Christians. It is the “source and summit” of our lives as Catholics. It would be weird for a Catholic to abstain for 4 years or 8 years unless they thought they were in mortal sin or were forbidden to receive by their priest (for example if they were in an irregular marital relationship). If they thought they were in mortal sin, a practicing Catholic would want to get back in a state of Grace as soon as possible in order to reduce their risk of hell; once back in the state of Grace they could receive.

Fourth, our only other Catholic President, JFK, received Communion while in office.

Fifth, some non-Catholic Presidents (Clinton and Reagan) have received Catholic Communion while in office. There has been a fuss over it each time it occurred because some felt the Catholic communion should not be given to a non-Catholic even if he is President. Also in the case of Reagan he was divorced and remarried.

Sixth, Biden received Communion while VP and there’s no reason to think he’s planning to stop now.
 
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An excommunicated Catholic is not considered in communion with the Church, but he does not become a non-Catholic or a non-member of the Church. He simply cannot receive the sacraments. Excommunication is a medicinal penalty designed to get him to mend his ways. It does not “un-Catholicize” him.

Sorry but your arguments are invalid. We have been over this before on numerous, numerous threads. I realize you will never agree and will just keep pulling out old documents to try to support your incorrect point, so I’m not going to engage with you.

There have been many Catholic politicians with the same views as Biden. None of them magically became un-Catholics. Father Drinan invented Biden’s political position and he died a priest of the Church and was buried in the Church.
 
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Daniel27 said:
Interesting how everyone points the finger at Biden for causing masses of abortion, whilst ignoring the rest of the world, and especially China.
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That’s because that “everyone” is us.

WE are responsible for this man’s power.

WE, including many Catholics, are the reason why Joseph Biden is in position to become one of the most powerful leaders in the world.

WE had the opportunity to utterly reject his evil agenda and send a message to the Democratic Party that WE will no longer accept their “human aid policies”" as long as they include the right to kill unborn human beings through all nine months. WE had the potential to bring about the demise of the current Democratic Party and see the rise of a new political Party that would have enacted many humanitarian policies but at the same time, eliminated or greatly hobbled the option of abortion on demand.

WE didn’t take that opportunity. WE didn’t have the vision for what a massive vote against Democrats could have done to that Party. WE could have been the means by which many Democratic politicians would repent and turn from their evil advocacy of abortion on demand, but WE walked away from that golden opportunity.

WE decided that WE would rather have a “gentleman” in office instead of a “boor.” WE sacrificed the lives of millions in order to have a President and Vice-President who claim that they will carry out Jesus’ admonitions as stated in Matthew 25: 31-46.

How convenient for us to allow the government to do what WE are supposed to be doing! Now WE can relax and let Pres. Biden and VP Harris take care of all those poor people.

As for China, WE can do nothing about their choice of leaders. WE have no vote, no editorial voice, no options other than a boycott of China’s economy, but this would put millions of Americans, e.g., farmers, who depend on China’s purchase of their goods, in perilous financial shape, thus necessitating even more “government aid” from the GENTLEMAN President Biden’s administration.

So it is WE that the Pope should place under personal interdict. WE are responsbile for condemning hundreds of thousands of innocent humans to execution, and hundreds of thousands of women to the trauma of abortion.

God help us.

Peeps is not happy with being a Catholic at the moment. She distrust Catholics and wonders how they can receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament knowing that they helped vote in a murderer.
 
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First of all, there is no “personal interdict.” Countries and dioceses are subject to interdict; particular persons are not. Interdict is usually placed on a country due to the actions of its ruler, and because nothing else can touch the ruler; but it is still a medicinal penalty.

Second, there is no way for a baptized Catholic to become not-Catholic. He can be a bad Catholic, an apostate Catholic, or any other kind of fallen away Catholic, but he’s still Catholic.

Third – Excommunication is a medicinal penalty, designed to show a baptized, nominally practicing Catholic that he is in grave danger of Hell by living in such a way that he is outside of communion with the Church.
 
Mintaka said:
First of all, there is no “personal interdict.” Countries and dioceses are subject to interdict; particular persons are not. Interdict is usually placed on a country due to the actions of its ruler, and because nothing else can touch the ruler; but it is still a medicinal penalty.

Second, there is no way for a baptized Catholic to become not-Catholic. He can be a bad Catholic, an apostate Catholic, or any other kind of fallen away Catholic, but he’s still Catholic.

Third – Excommunication is a medicinal penalty, designed to show a baptized, nominally practicing Catholic that he is in grave danger of Hell by living in such a way that he is outside of communion with the Church.
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Oh, how convenient for Pres. Biden that the Church can do NOTHING to rebuke him!!

Poor misguided Cardinal Burke!–the ONLY bishop I know of who has stood up to Joseph Biden and denied him Holy Communion!

Hey, there are sins I want to commit!–what do you think? If Pres. Biden can restore abortion to the place where it was under Pres. Obama and pay for it with your and my taxes, and the Catholic Church allows him to continue to receive Holy Communion (because surely he goes to Reconciliation before every Mass and begs forgiveness for his advocacy of abortion on demand and promises to make restitution, right?), then surely I can commit my besetting mortal sins and still waltz up to the communion rail and receive Jesus, the Lord of the Universe.

Is this REALLY the Church that Jesus Christ founded?
 
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Okay, so I went and looked at (name removed by moderator)'s previous posting of “church documents.” They weren’t encyclicals or anything like that; they were catechism textbooks for kids. So we’re not at high levels of dogmatic explanation here, nor are we talking about canon law textbooks.

So there was no clear distinction between people who are baptized Christians but not reconciled with the Church (for various reasons and in various ways), and people who are unbaptized Christians and have never been in the Church at all. “Outside the communion of the Church” would have been a better way to put it, but it would have been harder for kids to memorize.
 
Peeps –

Of course the Church can rebuke Biden. They can do all sorts of things. Would they be prudent things to do? That’s above my paylevel, and is the business of the bishops, or of individual parish pastors.

I have heard reports that Biden doesn’t usually attempt to receive communion back home in Delaware.

Another thing the Church could do is that it could impose interdict on every country with abortion. But that would be a punishment on Catholic pro-life people, and would hurt new Catholic converts, while it wouldn’t hurt the majority of anti-life non-Catholics.

Courtesy of the Coof, we have had a little taste of that interdict stuff this year, and some are still suffering from it, all over the world. It has had few good effects, and nobody has liked it.
 
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