On Thursday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough called President Barack Obama “our most Catholic of presidents.”

This absurd claim was made to former Obama adviser David Axelrod during a discussion about the president’s religious practices. According to McDonough, Obama’s flouting of Church teachings doesn’t matter.

Via The Washington Free Beacon’s transcript:

“Look, I say to him, Axe, and I think I’ve said this to him in your presence and I’ve said this publicly before, I think this is our most Catholic of presidents,” McDonough said. “And I mean that by capital ‘C’ Catholic in what I see and what he does everyday.”

“It’s not to say that he does everything entirely consistent with Catholic teaching,” McDonough said. “That’s not the idea, but I think in fact his view of the person and our role and the view of us as adding to the common good is an undeniably Catholic set of premises, and that’s why I say that to him a lot.”

The Beacon pointed out the obvious flaws in the claim — Obama is radically pro-abortion, and his administration is fighting to force Catholic nuns and priests to participate in providing insurance for contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs and devices. The Catholic League’s Bill Donahue pointed out that Obama backs the legal redefining of marriage, though McDonough might not consider violating the basics of the Church’s teachings on sexuality to be a big deal.

However, those are just the obvious flaws in McDonough’s absurd claim. Here are a few others:

Whatever one thinks of President John F. Kennedy’s political or moral philosophies, he called himself Catholic.

Furthermore, the Obama administration yanked federal funding from Catholic groups fighting sex trafficking because those groups declined to provide abortions, contraceptives and sterilization to trafficking victims.

Additionally, earlier this year, the administration said it would refuse to provide funding to women’s shelters that didn’t allow males who identify as female to use the shelters. Catholic groups opposed this regulation, but were rebuffed.

About one in six hospital beds in America is affiliated with the Catholic Church, which means Church-affiliated hospitals are tremendously harmed by the Obama administration’s requirement that hospitals which use federal funds must provide abortions and attempt to help patients change genders. 

The Catholic Church has tremendous influence in African nations, many of which have refused to acquiesce to the Obama administration’s blackmail — that to receive basic humanitarian aid, they must change laws and views on contraceptives and marriage. Some African Catholic bishops also claim that the administration refused to help Nigeria against Boko Haram as long as Nigeria refused to bow to demands to change laws against same-sex sexual relationships. (To be fair, not all of these laws are just ones. But this is the same administration that provided cash to Iran and opened relations with Cuba.)

Finally — at least, for this list — the administration refused to enforce the Weldon Amendment against California to protect conscience rights. The Amendment is a federal measure that makes it illegal for state entities that receive federal funding to discriminate against health providers that don’t provide abortions. 

Update: President Obama invited Catholic dissidents to meet Pope Francis last year, and used a quote by Pope Francis to support abortion. (Contrary to the fevered dreams of many liberals, Pope Francis has condemned abortion on many occasions.)