Pro-life Christians were outraged this week when President Joe Biden made the sign of the cross at a pro-abortion rally in Florida. He made the ostensibly pious gesture in Tampa while Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried complained about Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s pro-life six-week abortion law.
“We come back here to the state of Florida, where Ron DeSantis felt like he needed to run for president, so 15 weeks wasn’t good enough,” she said. “We had to go to six weeks.”
As Fried spoke, Biden motioned the cross by touching his forehead, chest and shoulders in the traditional formula. The sign is an ancient expression of piety that has existed since at least the third century and is commonly used by Catholic and Orthodox churches as a form of blessing.
“Biden’s use of the sign of the cross in support of abortion is a disgusting insult toward all Christians but especially of Catholics, whom he claims as his own,” said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote. “The sign of the cross is a sacred gesture used by believers to bless themselves, ask forgiveness or to protect them from temptation. Instead, Biden has turned this ancient Christian practice into an endorsement of abortion extremism.”
Biden has leaned into his Catholic identity in his presidential campaigns, casting himself as a devout believer despite blatant disregard for non-negotiable church teachings. Last week, a bishop in Michigan accused Biden of “stupidity” regarding the dissonance between his religion and politics.
He has previously been denied communion because of his abortion stance.
Amendment Four, proposed by Florida pro-abortion groups earlier this year, would dictate that “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health-care provider.”
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement this month saying, “We urge all Floridians of goodwill to stand against the legalization of late-term abortion and oppose the abortion amendment. In doing so, we will not only protect the weakest, most innocent and defenseless of human life among us but also countless women throughout the state from the harms of abortion.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
