Get ready for another episode of, Is He a Bad Catholic?
For a couple of decades now, Democrats who thought they would win over the Catholic vote by nominating Catholic politicians have been disappointed to learn that the Church views pro-choice Catholics as far worse than pro-choice Protestants. (See: Ferraro, Geraldine; Cuomo, Mario; Kerry, John, among others). .
John Kerry lost the Catholic vote, after being accused of violating church teachings on abortion.
Will Joe Biden meet the same fate? The conservative group Fidelis hopes so, declaring already that Biden’s choice “re-opened a wound” and is a “slap in the face of American Catholics.” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver told Associated Press Saturday that Biden should refrain from taking communion.
David Gibson over at Progressive Revival reports that the Bishop of Delaware had resisted pressure to punish Biden, but a new Bishop takes over September 9.
It’s worth noting: there are a few key differences between Biden’s and Kerry’s Catholicism.
Biden has broken with pro-choice orthodoxy more than Kerry did. He supported a ban on partial birth abortion and opposes government funding of abortions.
Though both came of age in the Vatican II era, and thereby were influenced more liberal elements within the church, Biden has followed a more traditional Catholic path. He went to Holy Rosary day school and a Catholic High School called Archemere, while Kerry went to a Swiss boarding school and an Episcopal boarding school. Biden attends mass weekly and carries a rosary.
Biden is a bit more combative in defending his faith practice. While Kerry would respectfully disagree with those who challenged his religious bona fides, Biden told the Cincinatti Enquirer in 2005 : “The next Republican that tells me I’m not religious, I’m going to shove my rosary beads down their throat.”
Finally, being Catholic in America is only partly about theology (in fact most Catholics don’t even follow church teachings on abortion or contraception). It’s also a cultural designation. Biden has the full Irish Catholic Catholic package — working class roots, Catholic schooling, a “scrappy” drive to make government help the Working Man. He may therefore do better with Catholics than the preppy Kerry even if he is criticized by the Bishops just as much.
So there really are two questions: will the Bishops be as tough on Biden as they were on Kerry?
Second, if they do, will it hurt with Catholic voters – or does Biden’s cultural Catholicism give him teflon?