The latest episode of a well-documented saga occurred June 28 in New York. U.S. President Joe Biden once again made a sign of the cross in public under circumstances that did not match the rituality of the gesture, thus causing confusion.

The American president was attending the opening ceremony of a cultural center dedicated to the history of LGBT rights in North America.

After his speech, the famous singer and master of ceremonies, Elton John, mentioned the threat of a rollback of gay rights if Donald Trump were to be reelected, ending his intervention with an expletive.

Biden then laughed out loud and made the sign of the cross, as if he regretted letting a laugh slip.

This untimely sign of the cross, in a context that was not religious, is not the first of its kind from Biden.

On several occasions, the Catholic president has surprised his audience by signing himself this way, raising questions among some faithful about a possible lack of respect for their shared faith.

A president accustomed to blessing himself

In 2012, while participating in a rabbinic congress in Atlanta, Biden blessed himself amid the audience’s laughter when the presenter referred to his 36 years of experience as a senator from Delaware, an ironic way for Biden to react to his longevity in that position.

The same happened at the UN last September when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned before the press, in the presence of the American president, their 40-year friendship.

Finally, in April, Biden attended a meeting organised in support of abortion rights in Florida.

Following a somewhat clumsy joke from the leader of the Florida Democrats to Ron De Santis, the state’s Republican governor, and former Trump rival, Biden laughed, immediately followed by a sign of the cross.

A hindrance to Biden’s vote?

Among Biden’s Catholic electorate, associating the sign of the cross with speeches on controversial subjects is far from trivial.

After the Florida episode, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield (Illinois) reacted, stating that making the sign of the cross at such an event related to promoting abortion rights amounted to “mocking the Catholic faith.”

These episodes have fueled an already recurrent controversy over the American president’s faith, with some bishops questioning his religious convictions and his standing in the church in light of his political positions. 4

Commenting on the 2020 campaign, the former bishop of Providence (Rhode Island) stated on X (formerly Twitter) that it was the “first time in a while that the Democratic ticket hasn’t had a Catholic on it.”

How to interpret these signs of the cross?

For Blandine Chélini-Pont, a specialist in American Catholicism and a professor of contemporary history at Aix-Marseille University, had this to say:

“these gestures by Biden are not religious, except to represent the contrition of a believing man,” who conjures up “having laughed at vulgarity or an inappropriate word.”

Massimo Faggioli, a historian of Catholicism and professor at Villanova University, and a regular contributor to La Croix International, said he believed that:

“these gestures say nothing about Biden’s consideration for the Catholic faith and its faithful, but speak much more about an electoral context where every micro-gesture can be used against the incumbent president.”

According to Faggioli, the American president’s blunder is “thinking there is still room for irony in American public debate,” especially when this irony relies on religious gestures.

• First published in La Croix
• is a journalist at La Croix