Mr. Biden can also introduce a “ReVOTElution” in the Catholic Church

President Biden and Pope Francis | Photos by World Economic Freedom and Catholic Church England via Creative Commons/Flickr

Part XXIV of the “ReVOTElution of H.O.P.E.” Series

Some prelates of the US Roman Catholic Church had verbally attacked President Joe Biden for his pro-abortion stance. And some of them said that they would not permit Mr. Biden to receive the sacrament of communion. Mr. Biden is the second Roman Catholic Church (RCC) to be elected the POTUS. (Incidentally, my neighbor in this Op-Ed Section, Amb. B. Romualdez described eloquently in his Babe’s Eye View column both Catholic US presidents.

Mr. Biden may begin a private dialogue with Pope Francis about making the oldest and biggest Christian church practice “back-to-basics religion” — at least in the United States of America. The Vatican will not take lightly a Mr. Biden, who happens to occupy the most powerful office in the world.

Here are the suggested reforms submitted respectfully to the layman Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, so that he may discuss them in private (and in his capacity and not as the POTUS with the pontiff:

• Giving the members of the diocese and parishes the right to nominate their own bishop. The Vatican may still do the formal appointment of bishops, based on the nominating process given to the lay people’s peaceful exercise of suffrage. The new bishop then appoints as parish priest the elected nominee chosen in turn by the parishioners. And at the same time, grant the parishioners and/or the members of the diocese the right of recall to remove an erring bishop or parish priest — as may be determined in a closed-door hearing of a Court of Public Opinion (CPO). The members of the jury for a CPO will be restricted to members of the concerned parish or diocese.
• Allow priests and nuns to receive the sacrament of marriage as an option. This will stop many, if not all, of the sexual abuses being committed by members of the clergy — as documented and settled often out of the civil court by the respective dioceses involved as the chief defendant (or respondent, as being the employer). This will also end what this columnist has coined, the Same-Ex Marriages (of former priests with ex-nuns or ex-wives, who are often divorced by their original lay husband because the wife fell in love with a priest).”
• In the matter of abortion, for the Vatican to suggest to the respective diocese to require any member planning to terminate her pregnancy to consult first with her parish priest, her physician and her own mother (or in the absence of her mother, then with her father or legal guardian). The point of contention is to make sure that the abortion is done according to wishes of the woman seeking it and in compliance with her conscience. For in so-many occasions, the final arbiter of any decision-making process of Christians is their conscience — as the Bible itself has stated in so many instances.
• For the Vatican to use its tremendous human-and-financial resources to join the United States in pushing what this column has dubbed the Biden Back-to-Basics (B2B) Doctrine. A compilation of several articles about this doctrine can be found at this link. Some of the proposed projects submitted to President Biden are new state-of-the-art Medical Centers in 50 countries, which are patterned after the US medical breakthrough in the City of Manila in the 1900s, public education, the conversion of unused church and public buildings as emergency shelters for the homeless population and pandemic cases. Other causes and concerns exemplified by movements like Black Lives Matter and Bleak Lives (Also) Matter, as proposed in the Facebook Group “BLEAK LIVES MATTER (‘Born Against’ Movement).” This Facebook Group also discusses suggested reforms in the RCC Diocese of Sorsogon, as at least two of its former bishops diverted aid given by American and European donors to business enterprises run by their respective family members. Businesses like purchasing half of the ownership of a beach resort. Or turning properties donated to the diocese for construction of commercial buildings or residential subdivisions. And letting a family foundation own, manage and market the subdivision lots and houses.
• For the Vatican, as a state, to join the governments of all nations in imposing corporate or individual taxes on the purchases or leases of corporate jets and luxury vehicles and mansions by any church or church leaders. Why? Jesus Christ and his apostles rode donkeys, walked, sailed on small fishing boats or walked on the sea water in their lifetime, as described in several Gospels.

Hallelujah, if President Biden can push the Vatican into doing the reforms mentioned above, American Catholics will respect him as a “living saint.” And after he goes to the Great Beyond (heaven forbid), they petition the Vatican to canonize Mr. Biden like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and be declared an American saint of the RCC.