Tale of two Catholics

Richard A. Sokerka

Judge Amy Coney Barrett and Vice President Joe Biden are both Catholics, but only one of them faces fierce public criticism for their faith.

It is not for us to question the faith of a fellow Catholic, but most certainly we can question how secular society looks at Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s faith and excoriates her for it while Joe Biden, running for the highest office in this land, is never, ever questioned about his faith, let alone taken to task for it.

Judge Barrett is an excellent choice to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. She has extensive experience as a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and as a litigator, a record of academic success, having graduated No. 1 in her class at Notre Dame Law School, and an outstanding judicial record over the years.

Yet despite her sterling credentials to serve on the highest court in the land, in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Com­mittee, she has come under fire for her Catholic faith by Democrat senators and in the secular media.

Retired Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia put it this way: “Judge Barrett’s life story suggests that she actually believes and seeks to live what her Catholic faith teaches.” In other words, opposition to Judge Barrett represents a fundamental objection to her living a public faith based on the faulty premise that faith is a personal and private matter and must not be practiced in the public square.

When asked about the influence of Vice President Biden’s Catholicism on his public life, Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, said, “Joe Biden’s faith in God gives him the strength to lead,” praising his personal beliefs as positively shaping his career in public office.

Members of the Democrat Party and the secular media have continuously praised Biden’s use of his faith in his presidential campaign. Why, then, is Judge Barrett denigrated for being who she is — a woman of profound faith?

It most certainly has something to do with the Democratic Party platform, which Biden and Pelosi fully support. That platform is for abortion on demand right up to birth, fully funding Planned Parenthood with taxpayer dollars, eliminating the Hyde Amendment, fighting to overturn federal and state laws that create barriers to abortion and codifying Roe v. Wade as law of the land.

Simply put, the same people who heap praise on Biden for his faith (that flies in the face of the Church’s teaching on abortion as the taking of innocent human life), apply another standard for Judge Barrett’s faith (because she is unabashedly pro-life and fully believes the Church’s teaching that abortion is evil).

Any religious test for public office is an explicit violation of the Constitution, both in the religion clauses of the First Amendment and Article VI’s direct ban on religious tests.

The Democrats and the media know this. To hold Barrett’s deeply held Catholic convictions against her is blatant religious discrimination.

Politics has become a vicious blood sport but no one should play the unholy game of pitting one member of faith against another member of the same faith and judge that only one of them is suited for public office because that person follows a party’s platform.