According to the survey conducted by AP, of the Catholics who voted, 50% supported Trump, while 49% supported Biden.

Ahead of the election, the rival campaigns targeted Catholics with ardent appeals to vote based on their faith.

Trump supporters said faithful Catholics should not vote for Biden because he supported abortion rights. Biden backers said Trump is too divisive and has failed to elevate social justice issues that are part of Catholic teaching.

Michael Wear, a past faith adviser to former President Barack Obama, said he saw signs that the Biden campaign's focused outreach to religious had paid off. Biden would be just the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy.

Michael New is an abortion opponent who teaches social research at the Catholic University of America. He said Trump's opposition to abortion likely attracted some Catholic voters even if they disagreed with him on other issues.

This year, Catholic voters accounted for 22% of the electorate, and there was a sharp rift within their ranks by race and ethnicity.

Among white Catholics, 57% backed Trump, and 42% backed Biden, according to AP VoteCast. In 2016, Trump won 64% of white Catholics, and Clinton won 31%, according to Pew Research Center voter analysis.

Among Hispanic Catholics, VoteCast shows 67% backed Biden, and 32% backed Trump.

"The election results show that the Catholic Church is as divided as our nation, but the real divide is race and ethnicity, not theology," said David Gibson, director of Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture.

President Donald Trump won support from nearly 80% white evangelical Christian voters in his race for reelection.

Among voters with no religious affiliation, Biden took 72% while Trump took 26%. Other religious voting blocs going for Biden, in line with their previous preference for Democrats.

Sources

PBS

Speaking at the University of San Diego this week he said such labeling "distorts the call to authentic discipleship in voting rather than advancing it."

Abortion and the environment are "core life issues in Catholic teaching," he said.

"The death toll from abortion is more immediate ...but the long-term death toll from unchecked climate change is larger and threatens the very future of humanity.

"There is no mandate in universal Catholic social teaching that gives a categorical priority to either of these issues as uniquely determinative of the common good."

McElroy said even if either of these issues were the current preeminent question in Catholic social teaching in the US, partisans will hijack them.

They will suggest "Catholics have an overriding duty to vote for candidates that espouse that position," he added.

Last November U.S. bishops approved a series of videos to augment their "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizens" document.

At the time McElroy said he was concerned about a supplementary letter to voters that told them abortion is the preeminent teaching of the church.

This would open the door to people ignoring Pope Francis's urging that other concerns "equally sacred" should be considered.

These issues include "the lives of the poor and elderly people, human trafficking victims and others who are struggling to survive," Francis wrote.

During his talk at the university McElroy also listed 10 issues Catholics should scrutinise.

Besides abortion and the environment, immigration and refugees, euthanasia and assisted suicide, racism, work and workers' rights, poverty and inequality, the promotion of marriage and family, nuclear disarmament, and the protection of religious liberty are all top concerns to consider.

Catholic social teaching points toward an understanding of justice, life and peace that refuses to be categorised, McElroy said.

"At the same time, this very comprehensiveness makes the prioritization of Catholic teachings difficult for voters."

McElro also spoke of a third compelling election issue.

He said "the culture of exclusion" has developed during the last three years, resulting in increased racial injustice and new language and symbolism that seek to advance the evil of white nationalism and create new racist structures.

This culture "seeps into all of the most salient questions of life and dignity that our society faces and corrodes each one in turn," he said.

Many faith-filled Catholics believe the most compelling Catholic social teaching for American voters is the need to get rid of the culture of exclusion before it spreads further.

Voters must choose, McElroy said. "It is the candidate who is on the ballot, not a specific issue.

"Which candidate will be likely to best advance the common good through his office in the particular political context he will face?"

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: US News & World Report