Bishop McElroy, addressing reporters in front of a recently vandalized Chaldean Catholic church in El Cajon. “The swastika is regrettable, of course, especially since my term ‘collaborator’ may cause some to think of those who chose to work with occupying Nazi forces during World War II rather than stand up and resist them. But I think we as a Church would be foolish to ignore such a clear expression of the sensum fidei, the sense of the faithful in our care. Clearly, the people wanted Biden, and what’s more, they wanted the Church to want Biden. Hence the graffiti.”

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is “gravely contrary to the moral law,” that formal cooperation in an abortion results in excommunication, and that “the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the [unborn] child’s rights.” Catholic President-elect Joe Biden begs to differ, which is why San Diego’s Bishop McElroy said that the Church in America needs “to be frank and forthright in its sharp disagreement with the President-elect’s position.” But he also highlighted areas where he hoped that fruitful collaboration would be possible: climate change and “the searing questions of racial justice and division.” The bishop said he expected some pushback on his comments, “just like when I partnered the diocese with Planned Parenthood as part of our outreach to women in crisis. Some people noted that Planned Parenthood is the largest single abortion provider in the nation, and that it passes out artificial contraception, which the Church also condemns. But you can’t deny the value of the other medical services they provide, often free of charge, to the women of our community. Or when we brought in Black Lives Matter representatives to help us understand systemic racism in our parishes. Sure, they explicitly seek to disrupt the nuclear family and they’re founded by a trained Marxist. But you have to look at the whole picture. Otherwise, you’re liable to end up praising Donald Trump for putting another pro-life Catholic on the Supreme Court. And besides, what else are we going to do? It’s not like we have some kind of institutional authority over Biden or anything.”