Walking and Chewing Gum at the Same Time. Faith and Political Power in the Public Square in US Catholicism

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Theology - Miscellaneous, grade: 1.0, Kwame Nkrumah University (School of Humanities and Social Sciences), course: Religious Studies / Religion and Politics, language: English, abstract: This article examines the theological symbiosis or lack thereof between Joe Biden, Pope Francis and the US Catholic bishops. My argument is that Joe Biden and Pope Francis model authentic Catholic Social Teaching and faith in the public square, especially the former who, as a non-ecclesiastic doesn't have to. I find the US Catholic bishops ambivalent. They talk a good game but walk an ambivalent one. I point to three examples: how they demonised Joe Biden during his campaign for the US presidency, canonised Donald Trump and how they have dealt with sexual abuse by priests, bishops and cardinals. In this latter case, I reluctantly agree with the views of a rogue Prince of the Church, Carlo Maria Viganò. The unusual triumvirate of Joe Biden, Pope Francis and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops which I examine here are held up to the litmus test of Catholic Social Teaching.

Tarcisius Mukuka [Dipl. Pastoral Theol & Counselling, Dipl. Phil. & Rel. Studies, STB, SSL, PhD] is a biblical exegete by training. He holds a Licentiate in Biblical Exegesis from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and a doctorate in Biblical Hermeneutics from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Orality as Casualty: Contextual and Postcolonial Analysis of Biblical Hermeneutics in Bembaland" (2014). He is currently a lecturer in Religious Studies Education at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kabwe. His research interests include postcolonialism and the Bible, gender and the Bible, religion, politics and power. He is the author of "Spoken Voice/Written Word: Negotiating How We Hear/Read the Bible" (2016) published by Lambert Academic Publishing and "In the Eye of a Very Catholic Storm" (forthcoming), by Crown Arts Publishers