It's Hard Not To Think The Calculation Is Changing

Cardinal Wilton Gregory has been widely characterized as a liberal at least since he was named Archbishop of Washington, DC.

The good news is the next archbishop of Washington, D.C., is not Cardinal Cupich, Cardinal Tobin or Bishop McElroy. The bad news is, according to Catholic News Agency, the new archbishop will be Wilton Gregory.

A disciple of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Gregory is not just liberal on some things; rather, he is liberal on everything.

On abortion.

On natural law and the traditional family.

On dissident priests.

On the translations of the novus ordo.

Even on dressing for the beach at Mass.

I'm not sure if this impression was ever completely accurate; as far as I can see, he's never been on board with the idea that Joe Biden is a "devout Catholic", for instance. As of 2021,

The spiritual leader of Washington, DC’s archdiocese says President Biden is “not demonstrating Catholic teaching” when it comes to abortion rights.

. . . Biden, who has been vocal about his Catholic faith throughout his political career, flopped Friday on his belief on when life begins. In 2015, the then-vice president said, “I’m prepared to accept that the moment of conception is a human life and being.”

Six years later, the president revealed that he respects but disagrees with those “who believe life begins at the moment of conception.” Biden added that he would never impose his beliefs on others.

While at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Gregory was pressed on the president’s change in beliefs.

“The Catholic Church teaches and has taught that life, human life, begins at conception,” Gregory said, according to the Washington Times. “So the president is not demonstrating Catholic teaching.”

“Our Church has not changed its position on the morality of abortion. And I don’t see how we could, because we believe that every human life is sacred,” he later added.

However, he distanced himself from Abp Gomez's statements following Biden's inauguration:

"Cardinal Gregory told me he felt the statement was quote 'ill-timed,' and reiterated that the Church and the President agree on many other things," [NBC Today co-host Al] Roker said, emphasizing Gregory's message of "dialogue" with the new administration.

. . . In the USCCB statement, conference president Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles offered prayers for Biden and said the bishops spoke not as partisans but with the aim of guiding consciences.

. . . On the "preeminent" issue of abortion and on other matters such as marriage and gender ideology, Biden has proposed policies "that would advance moral evils," Gomez' statement read.

It looks as though there's been a change, not necessarily slight, in Gregory's stance:

Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., was asked on CBS' "Face the Nation" whether he believes Biden's long-touted Catholic roots will resonate with American Catholics in the upcoming 2024 election.

"I would say that he's very sincere about his faith. But like a number of Catholics, he picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts," Gregory replied. "There is a phrase that we have used in the past, a 'cafeteria Catholic,' you choose that which is attractive, and dismiss that which is challenging."

I've frequently heard the term. and I've always thought it was derogatory. So I did a quick search of the web, and the general opinion is that it's derogatory, with a strong thread of dissent suggesting that while it is, it shouldn't be -- but of course, that's just an acknowledgement that it's derogatory. Gregory went on to explain,

"I would say there are things, especially in terms of life issues, there are things that he chooses to ignore, or he uses the current situation as a political pawn rather than saying, 'Look, my church believes this, I'm a good Catholic, I would like to believe this.' Rather than to twist and turn some dimensions of the faith as a political advantage," Gregory said.

Up to now, Gregory seems to have tempered his differences with Biden by stressing the areas where they could work together, referring as well to dialogue. But it's also worth looking at the context of his appearance on last night's Face the Nation: he was also on the show with TEC Bishop of Washingtgon Mariann Budde, who expressed opposing views on the specific question of whether it's a bad thing to be a cafeteria Christian -- Anglicanism has always been on the side of the cafeteria, after all. Elsewhere in the transcript of the show, Cardinal Gregory took a surprisingly hard line:

I think one of the things that we're experiencing is that faith and politics have always had a strange affiliation. But it's switc hed now. Whereas faith used to be the- the- the voice, the moral voice that political people, whether they adhere to everything, they would turn to find that the moral compass with faith. I think, in some cases, it's the political world that's beginning to set or claiming to set the moral voice. We've switched position. There is a- there is a great need, I believe, to place faith in its proper position, which is not necessarily antagonistic to the political arena but to seize the- the responsibility of being that guiding principle, that moral light for our people to turn to. And that has- that's been turned upside down in so many cases, too many cases.

Which is another way of saying that in the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr, a Baptist pastor, was joined by a wide spectrum of other religious leaders, certainly including figures like Cardinals Law and Bernardin, in speaking to the issue from a religious perspective. But almost immediately, feminist and gay rights organizations seized the prestige of the Civil Rights movement, which stemmed in some measure from its religious underpinnings, and hijacked it to promote and normalize issues like abortion and same-sex conduct, which have much less religious sanction.

Cardinal Gregory is clearly uncomfortable with this, and he seems to be sharpening his focus on Biden's willingness, not just to side personally with the secularist position, but to try to hitchhike on his Catholicism for his political benefit. Gregory isn't having this.

Whether Cardinal Gregory would go as far as San Francisco Abp Cordileone, who denied then-House Speaker Pelosi communion in her home diocese in 2022 for her support for abortion, and make the same move with Biden, is an open question. But at least from appearances, it's less unlikely than some would have thought.