ROME — Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge said Thursday that President Joe Biden showed a lack of integrity by proclaiming on Good Friday that March 31, 2024 — which was Easter Sunday — was Transgender Day of Visibility.
“You can’t make up what Easter is. Everyone knows what Easter is. It is a celebration of the Lord Jesus, who raised from the dead, who took on the world and proved victorious. That’s Easter. You can’t pretend it’s something else,” Bishop Burbidge said on his “Walk Humbly” podcast.
“I was so extremely, extremely disappointed that our local officials and our president would use the most important religious observance of the Christian calendar to proclaim a message that is political… and a source of division,” Burbidge said. “It was offensive to many people, and unnecessary.”
In the podcast, Burbidge also responded to defenders of the White House decision who insist that Transgender Day of Visibility has been celebrated on March 31 since 2009.
The fact is, Burbidge said, “we transfer holidays all of the time. We haven’t really talked about this day until it was on Easter, so I would tend to think that it was calculated and that is really, really sad, and it was offensive as Christians.”
“We should be celebrating all of human life, and I wish the president would join us in special occasions throughout the year where we do exactly that,” the bishop said, whereas Transgender Day of Visibility “just divides people and it hurts people.”
While the Church loves and embraces all people, “we cannot agree that anyone is someone other than who God created that person to be, nor can we agree with surgeries or other medical inventions to confirm what is not true,” Burbidge said.
“God created us male and female, and that is the truth,” he said.
Burbidge also picked up on recent comments by Washingto, DC, Cardinal Wilton Gregory where he labeled Biden a “cafeteria Catholic” because of the way he picks and chooses which aspects of Catholic teaching he will support.
“If you’re for the Lord then you’re all in and that means following his gospel and embracing the gospel of life,” the bishop said. “You can’t pick and choose. And that’s not just for the president, that’s for all of us.”
It is “very disappointing” to see a Catholic president “compromise who you are and who you believe,” he said.
“I think the average person, and people of goodwill, in the end, respect integrity. And seeing our president walking away from his faith, especially on Easter, and declaring no Easter symbols, declaring this Transgender Visibility Day, it’s very, very disappointing to say the least,” he added.
