Tea at Trianon: Biden’s Abortion Fig Leaves

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Biden’s Abortion Fig Leaves

From The Catholic Thing:

Like all the pseudo-devout “Catholic” hypocrites before him – the Cuomo Clan, Geraldine Ferrara, Ted Kennedy, etc. – Old Joe once used to beguile his audiences with the sophism that he accepted Church teaching that human life begins at conception and so was “personally opposed” to abortion but couldn’t impose that on the country. Now, he says he doesn’t believe even that – “respects” those who do, but is quite willing to impose the abomination of abortion even on states seeking to reject it.

A little clarity is in order.

First of all, the Church does not teach that human life begins at conception; science does. You can read it in any textbook of embryology. Having lectured us ad nauseam for a year about the need to “follow the science,” if Biden were sincere he should take his own advice. Because the Church takes science seriously, she teaches that life in the womb is to be held sacred and inviolable.

Second, those same pro-abortion politicians have never hesitated to say that their Catholic convictions impel them to oppose capital punishment – and to seek to abolish it.

For years now, the hierarchy has been embroiled in a debate regarding the application of canon 915, which holds that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin” are not to be admitted to Holy Communion. No one can doubt that a public official who professes to be Catholic and yet promotes the abortion agenda is living in a state of “grave sin.”

Some bishops, however, have tried to duck controversy with a fig leaf of their own by suggesting that withholding the Holy Sacrament would cause an even more serious problem, “weaponizing the Eucharist,” as they put it. The real story, however, is that the manifestly unworthy politico is the one who is “weaponizing the Eucharist” by daring to approach the altar, thus ignoring Paul’s warning that those who “eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” (1 Corinthians 11:29)

Not a few of those same bishops have strenuously opposed the advancement of a document of the episcopal conference on “Eucharistic consistency.” Let’s hope those hierarchs now recognize their foolishness.

To be specific, we should take a look at Biden’s actual situation. Since Biden lives at the White House, the Archbishop of Washington could invoke canon 915. Cardinal Wilton Gregory, however, clearly stated that he has no intention of doing so. And in response to Biden’s recent remarks, Gregory could only mutter that the president is “not demonstrating Catholic teaching.” (Read more.)