What does it even mean to be a Catholic anymore?

Anyone who was expecting Pope “abortion is murder” Francis to criticize President Joe “abortion is health care” Biden was either naïve or sorely disappointed when the two most powerful living Catholics met at the Vatican. According to Biden, the pope told him he was happy that our president was a “good Catholic” and that he had his permission to keep receiving Communion.

I don’t doubt that the pontiff told the president that he could continue shoving his unrepentant pro-abortion politics in the face of anti-abortion Catholics. Despite the opposition of American bishops and many conservative faithful like myself who are deeply troubled by this façade of piety, Biden and his many supporters think his advocacy for abortion rights should be brushed off like some annoying flake of dandruff on the wings of St. Michael.

Given his public comments, I believe that the pope was willing to forgive this lost sheep from Wilmington. I know I’m not going to change hearts, minds and eternal souls with my words. That’s not my intention, nor is it within my power to tell someone how to approach their relationship with God and their conception of morality.

But silence is not an option when it comes to the hypocrisy of people who regularly attack others as immoral, and both of the two most powerful Catholics have done that. Francis talked about the evil of “building walls,” a distinct dig at Trump, while Biden has gone after everyone, including and most especially Republicans who stand in the way of his agenda. These two men proclaim to care about humanity and “least of these” while excusing, or at least being complicit in, the greatest moral evil of our time: The destruction of innocent human life.

This isn’t about abortion per se. There are many folks who have differing opinions on the subject, including people I admire who have told me that they are conflicted about when life begins and whether it is ever justified to tell a woman that she should continue a pregnancy she’s unprepared to carry forward. I don’t respect that opinion, but I can coexist with these folks. Heck, I can even break bread with them. What I cannot do is sit idly by while the leader of my faith and the leader of my country live out this elderly bromance for the world to see without expressing how depressed, how disrespected and how very angry it makes me.

Catholicism has been the most vocal faith in its opposition to the destruction of human life in utero. It has also been outspoken against the death penalty, fiercely supportive of immigrants and refugees, cognizant of our stewardship of the earth and concerned with the welfare of the disabled and the dispossessed. So when two extremely high-profile members of that faith seem to excuse the ripping and tearing and destruction of that radiant garment at the hem, at the beginning where life takes hold and becomes manifest in the fertilized embryo, I have a big problem with the messaging.

Women like the acolytes of Planned Parenthood can parade their obscene pride in this barbarity on social media, and I just wince and scroll by. People like Nancy Pelosi can act like theologians and talk about how abortion is actually permitted by the church, and I just laugh. I can deal with the rhetorical games played by secular warriors who call abortion “a right” and “health care” because that’s politics.

But if the most visible secular Catholic in the world gets to flout the most fundamental rule of our faith, and the most influential Catholic pats him on the head, what does it even mean to be a Catholic anymore?

Don’t answer, I think I already know. We apparently get to write our own rules now because “Who is he to judge?”