President Joe Biden drew criticism and accusations of sacrilege for making the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion speech at his campaign rally in Florida on Tuesday.
Biden, the second Catholic president in United States history, made the gesture common among Roman Catholics while listening to a speech from Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried at his campaign event in Tampa.
This. Is. VILE!
President Biden makes the Sign of the Cross at an abortion rally in Florida!
You cannot be Catholic and support abortion!
You cannot invoke GOD and promote Death! pic.twitter.com/aG4P542EM0
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— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) April 23, 2024
During the rally that focused heavily on abortion, Biden blamed Trump for the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and accused him of creating “a healthcare crisis for women all over this country.”
During her remarks, Fried hit at Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, suggesting he only decided to support the state’s six-week abortion ban because he was running for president. Florida’s six-week abortion ban is slated to go into effect on May 1.
“And then we come back here to the state of Florida, where Ron DeSantis felt like he needed to run for president, and so 15 weeks wasn’t good enough — we had to go to six weeks,” Fried said as Biden made the sign of the cross. It’s unclear what specifically in her remarks prompted him to do so.
A clip of the moment went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, after being tweeted out by CatholicVote.org, a nonprofit pro-life political advocacy group based in Indiana.
“This. Is. VILE! President Biden makes the Sign of the Cross at an abortion rally in Florida! You cannot be Catholic and support abortion! You cannot invoke GOD and promote Death!” the group wrote.
The organization also tweeted Galatians 6:7: “Make no mistake: God is not mocked.”
CatholicVote.org President Brian Burch criticized Biden’s action as “despicable” and accused the president of trying to “co-opt a sacred practice in support of his new abortion religion.”
“Biden’s decision to make the Sign of the Cross in support of abortion extremism is a despicable charade that attempts to co-opt a sacred practice in support of his new abortion religion,” Burch said in a statement. “His gesture openly mocks the Christian belief in the sanctity of life.”
“There is no divine support for destroying the lives of innocent children, and he should know better. Biden’s gesture suggests he is either terribly naive, or senile, or callously indifferent to the foundational beliefs of millions of Christians in America,” Burch added.
Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was recently removed as bishop of Tyler, Texas, amid tensions with the Vatican, echoed Burch.
“Absolutely vile, pray for the soul of our president, he is a feeble old man, he needs to prepare to meet his maker,” Strickland tweeted.
Absolutely vile, pray for the soul of our president, he is a feeble old man, he needs to prepare to meet his maker… https://t.co/hOqvJZ3Oa8
— Bishop J. Strickland (@BishStrickland) April 24, 2024
Other users on X also flooded the footage from CatholicVote.org with negative responses, including many who noted they found it offensive despite not being Catholics.
“Is abortion now a left-wing sacrament?” asked the national grassroots pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which described Biden’s campaign stops as an “abortion fearmongering tour.”
“The fact that Biden gets away with this is a failure of many members of the church hierarchy,” pro-life Catholic activist organization American Life League wrote.
“Demonic: Joe Biden makes the sign of the cross at a pro-abortion rally,” wrote William Wolfe, who serves as executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership. “When I say evil spiritual forces are at play in his administration, I mean it.”
“This is truly sacrilegious,” wrote Marc Thiessen, a Catholic former White House speechwriter and columnist for The Washington Post. “Our ‘Catholic’ president making the sign of the cross at an abortion rally.”
“How disgusting,” wrote conservative political commentator Mercedes Schlapp. “Biden is an advocate for this culture of death that contradicts the Catholic pro life teachings.”
40 Days for Life, a pro-life campaign that works to end abortion through prayer and fast, community outreach and peaceful vigils at abortion clinics, wrote that Biden’s sign of the cross at an abortion rally is a “stark reminder of the disconnect between his actions and Catholic teachings on the sanctity of life.”
The backlash is the latest example of some Catholics questioning the sincerity of Biden’s professed faith in light of his support for practices that openly defy the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Several weeks ago, Archbishop of Washington Wilton Cardinal Gregory criticized Biden as a “cafeteria Catholic” who “picks and chooses” which elements of Catholicism he wants to follow.
“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 said during a March 31 appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“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,” he added.
Biden also prompted outrage from many Christians earlier this month for declaring Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attempted to downplay the backlash, claiming the Transgender Day of Visibility commemoration on Easter Sunday was coincidental because the observance falls on March 31 every year. She also accused Republicans who got upset about it of exhibiting cruelty and trafficking misinformation.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
