Catholic bishop apologizes for saying forgive president for “stupidity”

A Catholic bishop in Michigan has apologized after he called upon congregants to forgive President Joe Biden for his “stupidity” regarding the discrepancy between his policies and his professed Catholic faith.

Bishop Robert Gruss of the Diocese of Saginaw mentioned Biden during a lecture at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption. In the discussion, he urged congregants to let go of unproductive anger and resentment toward others, citing his own experience growing up with an alcoholic father and a letter he wrote in adulthood forgiving him for the trauma of his youth.

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“If you are harboring negative, resentful feelings toward our president, you’re not free,” Gruss said. “Otherwise, you’re letting him control you and your thoughts and your words and your actions. And I guarantee that if he is a problem for you, then those thoughts, words and actions are negative — they’re gonna come out and then we commit sin. That’s what sin is.”

Reflecting on his own feelings towards Biden — who has embraced a public affiliation with Catholicism while also supporting abortion, gender ideology and other policies contrary to church teaching — the bishop said he pities him. “I don’t have any anger toward the president,” he said. “I feel sorry for him. I’m not angry at him, he’s just stupid. It’s not stupidity in the derogatory way, it’s stupidity in the sense of he doesn’t understand the Catholic faith.”

Following heated debate about the appropriateness of the bishop’s remarks, the Diocese of Saginaw released a statement about the talk in which Gruss clarified his points. “I was speaking in the context of forgiving the president and any people in government who offend us by their words and actions — that we cannot harbor resentment toward them because in doing so, it would be sinful,” he said.

Gruss did apologize for using the word “stupid” to refer to the president, saying he should have chosen a more precise word. “I used the word ‘stupid’ in reference to President Biden, recognizing that it was poor judgment in my choice of words,” he said. “It was not meant to be disparaging, and I apologize.”

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice