Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic, Officiates Same-Gender Marriage
August 4, 2016 /5 Comments/in Marriage & Family, Politics & Human Rights, Uncategorized /by Robert Shine, Managing Editor
Vice President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, officiated a same-gender marriage this week. just as electoral politics, and Catholic engagement of them, heat up. Biden tweeted a picture of the ceremony, commenting:
"Proud to marry Brian and Joe at my house. Couldn't be happier, two longtime White House staffers, two great guys."
That photo has been retweeted over 38,000 times, including by Jill Biden who commented, "Love is love."
The Washington Post reported that the couple, Brian Mosteller and Joe Mahshie, both work at the White House. Mosteller oversees Oval Office operations while Mahshie is a trip coordinator for First Lady Michelle Obama. The intimate ceremony at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., where the Vice President resides, was the first wedding at which Biden had ever officiated.
Vice President Biden has, however, been a longtime supporter of marriage equality and LGBT rights. He endorsed equal marriage rights in 2012, suggesting then that the criteria for marriage should be, "Who do you love?" That comment is credited with helping speed up President Barack Obama's "evolution" on the issue, so he could then offer his own endorsement. Biden has also advocated for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, challenged the international community to address LGBT human rights, and said transgender equality is "the civil rights issue of our time."
For his decades of public service as a faithful Catholic, this spring Biden was awarded the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal alongside former Speaker of the House John Boehner. Yet, Biden has also taken heat from the Catholic hierarchy, on a number of occasions, for holding views inconsistent with magisterial teaching.
Looking to November, disputes about the actions of a vice president who is Catholic may not end. Indeed, they have already begun. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is the Democrats' vice presidential nominee. Kaine, a Catholic who has said his faith is "central to everything I do," has a positive record on LGBT rights.
But his support for marriage equality, in addition to being pro-choice, led Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence to suggest "[Kaine's] faith isn't central to his public, political life," according to the Providence Journal. Since his nomination, Kaine has received public criticism from Virginia's bishops, as well as from a priest in Washington, D.C. who tweeted, "Do us both a favor. Don't show up in my communion line." Faithful America has launched a petition calling upon Catholic leaders to stop questioning Kaine's faith.
Tobin's and other bishops' suggestion that Catholics who support LGBT rights are not fully Catholic is troublesome. Recent data from the Pew Forum revealed 42% of Catholics considered that the treatment of LGBT people is "very important" in the upcoming election, the highest of any Christian denomination and two points higher than the average for all voters. The bishops deny the reality that, like Joe Biden and Tim Kaine, many Catholics support LGBT rights because of, and not in spite of, their faith.
That denial causes unnecessary controversy for the church, and further harm to LGBT Catholics and their families. Thankfully, lay Catholics act daily for inclusion and justice. To Brian and Joe, and Joe Biden, Bondings 2.0 says congratulations!
The Huffington Post, "Why Joe Biden's Blessing of a Gay Wedding Matters"
Tags: Catholic, ENDA, equality, Gay, Joe Biden, LGBT, Marriage, marriage equality, non-discrimination, Tim Kaine
https://www.newwaysministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo_nwm-1.png 0 0 Robert Shine, Managing Editor https://www.newwaysministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo_nwm-1.png Robert Shine, Managing Editor2016-08-04 01:00:302016-08-04 01:00:30Vice President Joe Biden, a Catholic, Officiates Same-Gender Marriage
lynne1946 says:
To the D.C. priest: It's not your communion line. It's Christ's communion line.
When the hierarchy criticizes Catholics who love the law of God more than the laws of men it's a good thing. My respect to both VP Biden and soon to be VP Kaine.
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