Joe Biden, as his press secretary loudly proclaimed, is "a devout Catholic."

So somehow the news got out to the press — in this case, the leftist Jesuit publication America magazine — that Joe Biden on his trip to Israel, slipped away to hear Mass and say the rosary in the church that, by tradition, was the site of Christ's birth.

One part of President Joe Biden's ultra-publicized trip to the Middle East took place in private, away from the eyes of any of the journalists who accompanied him on the five-day visit.

The president was accompanied only by a single Secret Service agent when, after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem on July 15, he went on a personal pilgrimage to the complex containing the Basilica of the Nativity and the Church of Saint Catherine to pray.

Such a devout Catholic, you see.

It wasn't that quiet, given that a friendly news outfit reported on the matter, which also happened to be good publicity for Joe.  Nobody is supposed to film these sessions, but somehow, somebody let the news get out that Joe said the rosary and all that.  How would anyone know unless the matter was leaked?

The believable detail in the story, though, was buried at the bottom of the piece: "He wanted to go and kiss the children."

Now, I have no idea about the condition of this guy's soul or his relationship with God.  All I know is that, as the saying goes, by your works shall ye be known.

It's a pretty ungodly picture when it comes to Biden, and I'm not talking about Joe's fatherhood skills.

While Joe is preening for the cameras and his press lackeys are pretending the stories just somehow came out, he was busy with other stuff, which was pretty much the opposite of Catholic.

For starters, he's vowed to make abortion "rights" national and has even dropped his longstanding opposition to ending the filibuster to get pro-abortion legislation through Congress.

"I share the public outrage to this extremist court, that's committed to moving America backwards with fewer rights, less autonomy, and politicians invading the most personal decisions," Biden said Friday in a virtual meeting with Democrat governors to discuss protecting abortion access.

He's not a simpering wimp of a Catholic who is merely "personally opposed" to abortion.  No, he's an active proponent of it, willing to use political muscle for it, and not just in the states, but overseas, pushing abortion with the passion of a fanatic who considers it a sacrament.

Worse still, the crazed left has vandalized and burned dozens of churches, many of them Catholic, as well as interrupted and disrupted Masses and other religious services in the name of promoting abortion.  Any word on Joe to condemn that?  Not a single word.  Those, after all, are his political allies, so he's got nothing to say, wink, wink.

The same can be said of crisis pregnancy centers, many of which are Catholic-sponsored but can be sponsored by people of many faiths or, in fact, none.  Why the heck would it be anything other than a no-brainer to defend the right of non-abortion alternatives, given that Joe is a "devout Catholic"?  For Joe, that's not going to happen.

More ugly stuff is out there being promoted by the Devout One.  According to the State Department's website, some bat-brained official came up with the bright idea of offering $500,000 taxpayer grants to promote atheism in places like the Middle East, calling it a defense of "religious freedom."  Is there some special preference for atheism in the U.S. mission abroad?  Doesn't the Constitution say that no state religion is to be preferred over another?  It seems that some religions are more favored than others now that Mr. Devout Catholic is president.  Seriously, is promoting atheism a worthy foreign policy priority?  These centers are very likely to make locals in far-flung countries have a distinct hatred for the U.S. given the unpopularity of the position, particularly if it is promoted.  Let's not even think of what the local reaction is likely to be among the Muslims with that ill-fated project — we all know how the crowds get out of hand when Mohammed movies are made, and you'd think the State Department of all places would know that.

It's an amazing array of the promotion of anti-Catholic things, all coming from the same "devout Catholic" administration, as Joe takes out his rosary and makes political hay out of it.  Apparently, nothing he prays in church or wherever leaves the premises to inform him in his leadership as president of the U.S.  He's Mr. Rosary for the press but Mr. Anti-Catholic for the real world, building back secularism with a vengeance, instituting a North Korea–like abortion-on-demand regime, and twiddling his thumbs at the positively Bolshevik burning of churches and the promotion of atheism abroad.  He built that.

It's a disturbing picture, given that very few in the Catholic hierarchy are willing to criticize him on his behavior.  They are just sitting on their hands watching as President Devout Catholic actually constructs, taking the lead as master builder, an extreme secularist, anti-Catholic, anti-religious, anti-life America that only a North Korean commissar could love. 

Forgive me for being skeptical about Joe's claims to being a "devout Catholic."  The hypocrisy stinks. 

Image: Screen shot from News 19 WLTX video via YouTube.