If you haven’t heard already, Fr. Robert Morey, pastor of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina, refused to give communion to Joe Biden when Biden attended the church on October 27, 2019 while on a campaign tour in the state. I want to say up front that Fr. Morey is a close personal friend of mine whom I have known for almost 20 years. We regularly had lunch together when he was pastor of my church in Hagerstown, MD, and he performed baptisms for several of my children. I can safely say that he is one of the most orthodox and faithful priests I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Prior to being a priest, Robert E. Morey was an attorney for the Regan administration in the 1980s. Long story short, besides being one of the most humble clerics I know, Fr. Morey knows his stuff, both from the political angle and the ecclesiastical. Nothing gets by him, least of all crooked politicians trying to make a show of holiness to the public.

I called Fr. Morey on October 31 to get the scoop right from the horse’s mouth. I had heard stories about what had happened when Fr. Morey confronted Biden (e.g., the Mike Church Show on Oct. 30), but wanted to make sure of the exact details.

Biden may have had a premonition that he might have trouble at St. Anthony’s, since the church is littered with anti-abortion notices, both inside and out. The front lawn contains scores of crosses, each representing one million babies who were aborted in the US since 1973. Fr. Morey added that he had no warning Biden would be attending his church, but that when he saw Biden in the pews during the homily, he slightly altered the homily to make a statement about abortion, hoping it would serve as a warning to Biden that this priest took the matter very seriously. Fr. Morey knew Biden had previously been turned down for communion in the diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, so the incident at St. Anthony’s was not Biden’s first rodeo.

As Fr. Morey recalls the incident, when the lines for communion had formed, Biden was in Fr. Morey’s line since he had been sitting on that side of the church. The other line was stationed by a male eucharistic minister, which line later turned out to be the shorter of the two lines. Biden suddenly switched to the eucharistic minister’s line. Fr. Morey saw the switch and thought at first that Biden did so because the other line was shorter. But taking no chances, Fr. Morey told the eucharistic minister to switch places with him so that Fr. Morey would be at the head of Biden’s line.

When Biden met Fr. Morey face to face, Morey asked Biden: “Are you Joseph Biden?” Biden answered affirmatively. Morey then said, “Because of your stance on abortion, I cannot give you communion. I will give you a blessing instead.” As Morey was about to give him the blessing, Biden asked: “Can you change your mind?” Morey shook his head. Biden then said: “Please give me Holy Communion.” Morey again shook his head. Biden then said: “The pope disagrees with you.” Morey stood silent. Seeing that Morey was not going to give him communion, Biden began to walk away and said in a low tone: “You set me up,” to which Morey responded: “No sir. I did not.”

Fr. Morey was told by some interested parties that Biden’s campaign had actually set up the incident knowing that Biden might be turned down for communion so that he could look like a martyr persecuted by a conservative Catholic priest. If that is so, it makes sense why Biden chose St. Anthony’s, the most conservative church in the Florence area, complete with anti-abortion posters and paraphernalia right on its grounds. Conversely, critics have accused Fr. Morey of creating a stunt and doing so for purely political reasons. Fr. Morey told me, rather pointedly, there wasn’t a political bone in his body about the incident, and that he reacted purely from spiritual motivations. He added that he felt sorry for Joe Biden and that after the Mass he prayed two rosaries for him.

National News

The bishop of the diocese found out about the incident from one of the parishioners of the church. He called Fr. Morey the day after, Monday, Oct. 28, and explained that the issue was going national, and had already been covered by the South Carolina Morning News. The bishop put no pressure on Fr. Morey nor even hinted that he wanted him to make amends for his actions toward Biden. Rather, he told Fr. Morey that he simply needed a statement for the press regarding the incident. So Fr. Morey wrote the following:

“Holy communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. As a priest, it is my responsibility to minister to those souls entrusted to my care, and I must do so even in the most difficult situations. Rev. Robert E. Morey.”

Having already been barred from communion in Scranton once before, although Biden’s switch of lines might possibly be because the eucharistic minister’s line was shorter, it is just as likely that Biden knew precisely what he was doing and was hoping to avoid any confrontation with Morey. The incident in Scranton also tells us that Biden knew the rules of the Catholic Church concerning communion, namely, that manifest and/or public advocacy or practice of mortal sin bars one from receiving communion (e.g., Canon Law 915, 1983 Code; St Thomas Aquinas, Book III, Q. 80-82; Catechism of the Catholic Church, ¶1415; 1 Cor 11:17-34). It is one of the principle teachings of the Catholic Church that is ingrained in the member’s conscience from the time he is a child. No one could forget it.

In any case, this incident at St. Anthony’s was the moment of truth for Biden. All his life he had been skirting around Catholic doctrine, which was profoundly noted by his public advocacy for abortion-on-demand when he declared himself a candidate in 2018 for the 2020 presidential election. The incident at St. Anthony’s escalated in importance since Biden has been slipping in the polls and has been accused of political nepotism concerning his son Hunter who sits on the business boards of prestigious companies in the same foreign countries that his father Joe had active political relationships while in the Obama administration (e.g., China, Ukraine, Romania) and has made billions of dollars from it.

Not surprisingly, Biden has decided to play down the incident at St. Anthony’s, perhaps realizing that whether he accepts or repudiates Fr. Morey’s actions, neither will be good for his political aspirations. If he accepts Fr. Morey’s admonition, it means Biden has accepted the guilt of his advocacy of abortion and is then required to renounce it, to the dismay of his Democratic constituents and the votes that go along with them. If he repudiates Fr. Morey’s admonition, he has then marked himself as a dissident Catholic and a moral hypocrite. The only choice then is to downplay the incident and make it private (just the same, curiously enough, as when those who commit abortion claim they can do so because it is a “private matter” between the mother and her health). Hence, it was no surprise to hear Biden declare the third option when he was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell just a few days ago:

Andrea Mitchell: I want to ask you one question that came out of local reporting in S. Carolina. There is a report that you were refused communion at a local church service for your stand on abortion rights. Is there any truth to that? Did that happen?
Biden: I’m not going to discuss that. That’s just my personal life, and, uh, I’m not going to get into that at all.
Mitchell: Well, do you think that in a general election campaign you’re going to face some of these cultural issues especially…
Biden: Oh, sure I will. Sure I will. Everyone will. And all…I’m a practicing Catholic and I practice my faith and, um, but I never let my religious beliefs which I accept based on church doctrine, they call it de fide doctrine, to impose that view on other people.

So here we have the typical excuse that has been used many times by US politicians in an attempt to separate their personal convictions from their public advocacy and practices. They insist, as Biden did in a recent interview, that he is “personally opposed to abortion,” but since most of his Democratic constituents are of the opposite persuasion, in order to run for president as a Democrat he must allow abortion on a political basis. It’s the old Jekyll and Hyde approach to finding a happy medium between politics and religion in a country where the separation between church and state invites such hypocrisy.

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This is just an excerpt from Culture Wars Magazine, not the full article. To continue reading, purchase the December, 2019 edition of Culture Wars Magazine.