Inside Biden’s Parish – Juicy Ecumenism

Central to President Joe Biden’s image as a coal-born, old-school Democratic politician is his Roman Catholicism. Since his first years in the Senate, the president has cited his Catholic faith as an inspiration for his political beliefs, calling the church “the bedrock of[his]life.”

Since ascending to the White House, Biden’s relationship with the Catholic Church has been complicated by his liberal views on gay marriage, transgender issues and, most pointedly, abortion. Biden, who has called himself a champion of abortion rights, has been sharply criticized by both Catholic laity and clergy. The bishop of his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, said he would deny Biden communion during the 2008 campaign.

In contrast to the general mood among Catholics nationwide, Biden’s reception by prelates in his home diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, has been much milder, as neither current nor former bishops of Wilmington have denied the president communion because of his views. When pressed on the issue, Wilmington’s current Bishop William Koenig argued against “politicizing the Eucharist,” a refrain common among Catholic clergy whenever the topic of excommunicating heterodox politicians comes up. The tension between Biden’s open flouting of church teaching and the church’s soft-spoken response is palpable not only in national or diocesan discourse, but in the life of the president’s own parish as well.

St. Joseph on the Brandywine is a picturesque Catholic church in the affluent Wilmington suburb of Greenville, Delaware. The modest chapel serves as a microcosm of the American Catholic story. St. Joseph on the Brandywine was originally built in 1841 to serve the emerging Italian and Irish communities employed at the DuPont factory, who had previously relied on a network of house churches with itinerant priests. The parish grew steadily after its initial construction, becoming Delaware’s most prominent Catholic community by the turn of the 20th century. It also received its iconic bone-yellow paint job around the same time as a gift from the DuPont family, a feature that remains in the church today.

The Biden family moved to the area in 1953, and Joe Biden was firmly established as a regular parishioner by the late 1960s. The early 1970s were a time of dramatic change for both Biden and his church. In 1972, campaigning on a relatively progressive platform and promising change, Biden won his Senate seat against incredibly steep odds, handing it to the Democrats, who have held it for the past half-century. St. Joseph on the Brandywine also underwent massive structural reforms in accordance with the liturgical changes of Vatican II, with the communion rails and side altars torn out of the church. Senator Biden tragically lost his wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972, who would later be buried at St. Joseph, to be joined by Biden’s parents in the 2000s and Biden’s son Beau in 2015.

After Biden’s two terms as vice president (2009–2017), he returned to Delaware to chair the eponymous Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. Likewise, St. Joseph’s received a State Historic Marker in 2016, giving both Biden and his church a place in the state’s cultural history. St. Joseph on the Brandywine and Joe Biden are in some ways images of each other. Both have working-class ethnic roots, were committed to reform in the 1970s, and are now regarded as prestigious artifacts of the historic tradition of American Catholicism.

It is in light of this shared history and deep-rooted sentimental bond that Biden’s relationship with his parish must be understood.

Biden’s decades-long relationship with St. Joseph’s remains irenic despite his controversial stances on life and family issues. Since Biden became a member, St. Joseph’s has seen 14 pastors come and go, none of whom have confronted President Biden on these issues, despite periodic requests to do so on behalf of angry parishioners.

Part of Biden’s willingness to flagrantly defy the church’s moral teaching is due to brazenness, but the issue is more complex. Biden is the product of a particular model of American Catholicism that prioritizes personal, private faith and is skeptical of the church’s involvement in social and political issues. This generally liberal, post-Vatican II variant of a hip, modern Catholic church is central to Biden’s commitment to his tradition. His favorite hymn is “On Eagles Wings,” he frequently chooses Jesuits as his faith advisors, and he consistently places love and social justice at the center of his religious expression, evidence of his affiliation with this model of Catholicism.

The same forces have largely shaped Biden’s Delaware parish. If you’re looking for a dramatic showdown between a zealous pastor and a renegade president in St. Joseph’s, you won’t find it. Instead, look for a modest suburban parish, grateful for the public role Biden has given Catholicism but careful not to make the church seem too dogmatic or rigid to stay relevant.

Politicians like Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes are easy prey for conservative Catholic media, but their positions are not as alien to the church as some would like to think. On the contrary, the continued presence of liberal Catholic politicians goes hand in hand with the continued presence of liberalizing currents in the church.

If conservative Catholics expect Catholic politicians to adhere to the church’s moral teaching, they will have to address the culture of sheepish shepherding that has dominated the church since Biden joined.

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