WASHINGTON (CNS): Addressing the National Prayer Breakfast on February 3, president of the United States, Joe Biden, called for a return to the political civility he said he’d known when he was a freshman senator from Delaware.
“We don’t spend as much time with each other as we used to,” he reflected at the gathering, which was greatly cut down from its previous incarnations at a Washington hotel.
This year it was held in the auditorium at the Capitol Visitor Centre. One of the organisers, Chris Coons, the Democratic senator from Delaware, called it a “reset,” limiting attendance to members of Congress, breakfast speakers and their spouses.
It was the first time the event was held in person in two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 70th annual breakfast was low-key and bipartisan. The event always features members of Congress reading from scripture and this year, Republican senator, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority leader, read from the Gospel of Matthew.
In his brief remarks, Biden, only the second Catholic president in the nation’s history, discussed the losses in his own life, including the death of his son, Beau, from a brain tumour, adding, “Everyone has had horrible things to deal with. I had a lot of help.”
“As president, you should still be able to count on our prayers for the success of our nation,” said Mike Rounds, the Republican senator from South Dakota. He said the breakfast reflected “the right of each of us to worship the good Lord as we see fit.”
In his brief remarks, Biden, only the second Catholic president in the nation’s history, discussed the losses in his own life, including the death of his son, Beau, from a brain tumour, adding, “Everyone has had horrible things to deal with. I had a lot of help.”
Biden waxed nostalgic about an earlier time of eating lunches as part of a group in the Senate: “You learn about their losses and their happiness and you learn about them.”
He added, “It’s hard to dislike someone when you know they’re going through something you went through.”
Addressing McConnell directly, he said, “Mitch, I don’t want to hurt your reputation, but we really are friends. And that is not an epiphany we’re having at the moment. You’re a man of your word, you’re a man of honour. Thank you for being my friend.”
Referencing Matthew 20:28, Biden said, “I pray we do what Jesus taught us: to serve rather than be served.”
Concluding, Biden said, “One of the reasons other countries sometimes think we’re arrogant is because we believe anything is possible.”
Unity doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but unity is where enough of us believe in a core of basic things. The common good, the general welfare, a faith in the United States of America.
The president said, “Unity doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but unity is where enough of us believe in a core of basic things. The common good, the general welfare, a faith in the United States of America.”
Political unity, Biden said, “is elusive,” but “it’s really very necessary. That’s why we’re here—to make the most of our time on Earth.”
The keynote speaker was Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organisation that advocates for fair and equal treatment in the criminal justice system.
He told the gathering, “We have to understand our power as people of faith to embrace one another.”
Outlining what he described as America’s “narrative of racial differences” from the era of slavery to the violence that has persisted long after the Civil War ended, he concluded: “We’ve got to stay hopeful even when it’s difficult and painful.”
