In an op-ed for Newsweek, Hale blamed the defeat on a lack of faith outreach and a perceived "God problem" within the party.

Exit polls revealed that 58% of Catholic voters supported President-elect Donald Trump, while only 40% backed Harris. This contrasts starkly with 2020, when 52% of Catholic voters chose Joe Biden and 47% supported Trump.

Hale attributed the shift to the Democrats' failure to prioritise religious voters. He criticised Harris' decision to skip the Al Smith Dinner, a longstanding Catholic charity event hosted by the Archdiocese of New York.

Instead of attending, Harris sent a pre-recorded message.

Hale dismissed the video as ineffective and emblematic of a broader discomfort with engaging faith communities.

Political cost

Hale argued that the party's increasing alignment with secular and progressive values often sidelines faith-based perspectives, particularly on issues like abortion.

The founder of Catholics for Harris noted that while many Catholics support legal abortion under certain conditions, the party's unwavering stance post-Dobbs v Jackson alienated moderate and pro-life Catholics.

"This inflexibility makes it difficult for pro-life or moderately pro-choice Catholics to feel at home within the party, despite aligning with its position on other critical issues like poverty, health care and immigration" he said.

Hale highlighted the political cost of this approach, pointing out that Catholics are a diverse and influential voting bloc, especially in battleground states.

Inclusive approach needed

He urged Democrats to adopt "a more inclusive approach that acknowledges the importance of faith in the lives of millions of Americans".

This includes outreach to faith voters and participation in events like the Al Smith Dinner.

Trump's campaign by contrast positioned Republicans as defenders of religious freedom, drawing in Catholic voters who felt neglected by the Democrats.

Hale warned that ignoring Catholic concerns allows Republicans to dominate the narrative among faith communities.

Hale rejected the notion that Democrats should avoid engaging with Catholic leadership due to scandals or ideological differences.

"Forty million persuadable voters shouldn't be ignored and punished for the behaviour, beliefs and sins of their leaders" he argued.

Sources

Christian Post

Catholic Vote

CathNews New Zealand

Exit polls conducted by the Washington Post, NBC News and the Associated Press reveal that Trump claimed roughly 56% of the Catholic vote compared to Harris' 41%, a 15-point lead in key swing states.

According to the Washington Post, this outcome marks a notable departure from the 2020 election where Trump led Joe Biden among Catholic voters by only five points.

Trump's ability to gain traction among Catholics reflects an appeal to voters with traditional values, particularly on abortion and immigration.

The Associated Press VoteCast poll shows that 90% of voters who believe abortion should be illegal in most or all cases supported Trump. In comparison, Harris retained 69% of voters in favour of more liberal abortion policies.

Additionally, Trump held a 25-point lead among Catholics on immigration and a 19-point lead on the economy, topics that resonated with a demographic historically split between the two main parties.

Generational shift

According to Massimo Faggioli, professor of Historical Theology at Villanova University, Trump's strong support among Catholics represents a generational shift.

"The cultural and ethnic diversification of American Catholics does not mean they automatically align with the 'diversity party'" he explained.

"There are fewer Catholics in the USA that look like Biden and (former Speaker of the House Nancy) Pelosi" Faggioli argued.

Faggioli also noted that Trump reached out to Catholics in the country "in a way that the Harris-Walz campaign did not". For instance, Donald Trump chose a Catholic convert as Vice-President, JD Vance.

Ideological rifts

Looking ahead, some analysts speculate on the broader implications of a second Trump presidency for US Catholics.

Faggioli predicts further ideological rifts within the Catholic community, with debates likely to centre on immigration, climate change and other social issues.

The response of US bishops to Trump's policies will be closely observed, especially given their past criticisms of Biden's stance on abortion.

According to the Washington Post poll, non-Catholic Christians also voted in strong numbers for Trump (62%). On the other hand, Jews (79%), other believers (60%) and non-religious (72%) supported Harris.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

La Croix International

CathNews New Zealand

Speaking to Crux during the Synod of Bishops on Synodality in Rome, Cardinal Gregory stressed the need for Catholics to have a comprehensive view of the nation's key issues.

"No political party and certainly no individual candidate that I've experienced embraces the full range of Catholic social, moral teaching" he says. "Obviously, the reverence, the respect of human life is a dominant concern."

The cardinal questioned whether Catholics should engage in single-issue voting based solely on a candidate's stance on abortion without considering their other positions.

"Yes, it is foundational, the dignity of unborn life, but does it dispense with all of the other awful proposals that are out there?" Gregory asked.

Umbrella of respect for human life

Gregory highlighted several issues that fall under what he described as the "umbrella of respect for human life". These include immigration, capital punishment, poverty, racism and mental health.

The cardinal noted that issues such as race, gender and gun violence have also come to the forefront of the election. The cardinal pointed to the ongoing violence in the US and internationally as areas voters should consider carefully.

He also mentioned economic issues including the challenge of earning a living wage, child care and racial disparity, which remain pressing concerns in American life.

Lesser of two evils

Pope Francis recently urged American Catholics to choose the lesser of two evils in the upcoming US presidential election, criticising both Donald Trump's immigration policies and Kamala Harris' support for abortion rights.

The pope condemned the refusal to welcome migrants as a "grave sin" and described abortion as an "assassination".

Francis said both candidates' policies are "against life".

"Whether it is the one who is chasing away migrants or the one who kills children, both are against life."

Sources

Catholic Herald

CathNews New Zealand

Francis made the comments during a press conference aboard the Papal plane on his flight back to Rome from Singapore.

Without naming Donald Trump or Kamala Harris directly, Pope Francis referred to policies on immigration and abortion as serious moral issues.

He condemned the refusal to welcome migrants as a "grave sin" and described abortion as an "assassination".

The pope encouraged Catholics to vote, urging them to reflect deeply and decide in good conscience, saying "Not voting is ugly. It is not good. You must vote".

"You must choose the lesser evil" he said.

"Who is the lesser evil? That lady, or that gentleman? I don't know. Everyone, in conscience, (has to) think and do this."

52 million US Catholics

US Catholics, numbering around 52 million, are seen as a key voting bloc in the November election. Catholics make up significant portions of the electorate in swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where their votes could sway the election outcome.

The pope reiterated the Church's longstanding opposition to abortion, stating clearly that it is "killing a human being" and that no exceptions could justify it.

Similarly, he emphasised the Church's support for the rights of migrants, referencing biblical teachings that call for the care of orphans, widows and foreigners.

Trump has promised, if elected to a second term as president, to crack down on illegal immigration and deport millions of immigrants already in the US.

He has also refused to rule out building detention camps for undocumented immigrants.

Harris has promised to sign any legislation passed by Congress to restore national protections for abortion access, which the Supreme Court struck down in its 2022 Dobbs decision.

Francis said both candidates' policies are "against life".

"Whether it is the one who is chasing away migrants or the one who kills children, both are against life."

Sources

Reuters

Religion News Service

CathNews New Zealand

It marks the end of a generation of Catholics in politics, those who arrived on the national political scene in the wake of World War II and the GI Bill of the Kennedys and Vatican II.

They were finally able to leave behind the marginalisation of the "papists" from the mainstream, where American Protestantism and the liberal establishment dominated, making the idea of a Catholic in the White House uncomfortable, to say the least.

Thanks to the presidency of John F. Kennedy and Biden, there are no longer suspicions about Catholics' loyalties.

But questions about the real content of liberal democracy today have ecumenically spread beyond the confines of Catholicism.

The end of an era

It's the end of an era that had begun some time ago and is now coming to pass.

The most evident change is that America is no longer, such as during the time of Kennedy, a "three-religion country" of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews.

Catholics hold 29 percent of the seats in the 117th Congress, but it's not necessarily a growing influence. It's more than the disappearance, in the last two decades, of pro-life Catholic politicians among the Democrats.

The focus on "social justice" has often swallowed up the rest of the Catholic imagination on the political and ecclesial left, and this has given space to a deep-seated revanchism from fellow Catholics on the right.

The fact that there is a majority of Catholic justices on the US Supreme Court today has not exactly benefited the credentials for the democratic culture of Catholicism in America.

Parallels have been drawn, both in America and at the Vatican, between Biden's decision and the late Pope Benedict XVI's resignation in 2013.

Besides the differences, especially in the freedom with which that decision was taken, there is the fact that, unlike Benedict XVI, Biden leaves no epigones, much less a Catholic movement behind him.

There are Catholics among the younger generations of Democrats in politics, but their Catholicism plays a more marginal role in their personal identity and political values.

The rift and the void

The void that Biden leaves behind is bigger than the rift with the majority of Catholic bishops on the issue of abortion as well as gender, and that made many of them quietly or openly favor Trump in the previous election.

Some bishops became even quieter - actually silent - when the former president and his cabal tried to overturn the results of the elections between November 2020 and January 2021.

That rift between Biden and the bishops on the admission to Communion for Catholics in public office who support legislation permitting abortion, euthanasia, or other moral evils did not become formal-sacramental.

That was thanks in part to the extraordinary intervention of the Vatican in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in May 2021.

However, it has never truly healed.

New era

Biden's exit marks a change in internal relations within US. Catholicism.

It is not simply the disappearance of conciliar Catholicism in favor of anti-conciliar Catholicism in a neo-conservative or traditionalist fashion.

The National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis (July 17-21 quite different from the previous one, in Minneapolis in 1941) has shown how the triad doctrine-life-worship of US Catholicism is a complex mixture.

It involves: forgetfulness (sometimes outright rejection) of Vatican II but also an anonymous reception of it; Catholic pride but also embrace of styles of worship that have a lot in common with American Protestant revivalism; quest for interior peace but also drive for emotional entertainment shareable on social media.

The push to include ecclesial identities other than the Irish and continental European ones, which have dominated for a century and a half, now finds support.

That support is not only in theological progressivism descending from the Enlightenment but also in the globalised traditionalism of the ethno-culturalist brand.

Certainly, an illiberal traditionalism is very active and well-funded in the United States, both at the theological and political level.

But the situation is more complicated and must be seen honestly in the context of the crisis of progressive Catholicism, the "spirit of Vatican II" Catholics, even in Europe.

This recent phase of identity-driven secularisation has created a void that was filled by intellectual, ecclesial, and ecclesiastical forces that cater to the post-modern self with ready-made answers (simplified as much as you want).

They appeal to the younger generations more directly than the ones projected by academic and collegiate Catholicism (to which I belong as a member of the professoriate).

A Catholic like J.D. Vance, Trump's choice for vice president, exemplifies a generation of post-liberal, anti-"woke" political-intellectual operatives who constantly shift ideologies in an attempt to define family, community, and polity — without paying much attention to Catholic social thought.

Biden's departure is certainly the end of an era but for reasons beyond the lack of a generation of Catholic politicians on the left.

It's a discontinuity that has to do with the interruption in the transmission of Vatican II Catholicism, in its comprehensive "catholicity," in many quarters of the Church in the United States, especially in the seminaries for the formation of the clergy.

Indeed, US militant and conservative Catholicism has largely cut its ties with the theology of Vatican II, but this is not just an American problem.

What is happening in the United States could be a good opportunity to look also into the Catholic Church in Europe, which is largely in denial.

What is happening in American politics with the retirement of a "Vatican II Catholic" like Joe Biden and the emergence of a politically expedient "cultural Catholicism" is also happening in Italian politics, for example.

As seen from the Vatican

The new configuration of the American electoral campaign opens two fronts of uncertainty for the Vatican.

With Biden's exit, Pope Francis loses a predictable interlocutor on internal issues and a reliable one on international issues (despite the differences in opinions and policies about Ukraine and Israel).

The post-Biden Democratic Party will be more distant from Rome and Europe: today's America is no longer an extension of the old continent, the last province of the Roman Empire of the neo-conservative dreams.

The relationship between a Trump-Vance administration and the Vatican (migration and environmental policies, Ukraine, Israel, China) is anyone's guess.

But it also opens an internal front within the Church, with the Vatican grappling with two different and opposing radicalisms (in different ways) on the abortion issue and on gender.

Culture war

If Kamala Harris were to be dragged into culture war fights, this might influence her relations with the Catholic Church both domestically and internationally and deteriorate the alignment with the Vatican that Biden was able to create and keep.

Some US bishops probably felt orphaned by the new GOP that, in its platform for the 2024 elections, demoted the abortion issue: the 2022 "Dobbs" ruling of the Supreme Court transformed the pro-life cause into an electoral liability in many districts.

But if Harris campaigns as a culture warrior, it is predictable that even more bishops will return to placing their hopes in the Republican Party, which has become a risk to the survival of constitutional democracy in America.

If Trump is elected, J.D. Vance could become the highest-ranking Catholic in a post-democratic or authoritarian United States.

One of the paradoxes of this American moment is that it was a Catholic president, Joe Biden, who in 2020-2021 helped save American democracy, which, at least until Kennedy and Vatican II, Catholics were accused of not believing in.

Now, the relationship between the political cultures of US Catholicism and American democracy enters a new territory.

• First published in La Croix
• Massimo Faggioli is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, columnist for La Croix International, and contributing writer to Commonweal.

According to a Catholic News Service account of the encounter, the pope shooed away Vatican aides several times when they attempted to interrupt the 45-minute conversation.

After waving them out of the room, John Paul pulled his chair out from behind his desk to sit closer to Biden.

The pontiff ribbed the senator about his age as the two discussed everything from the politics of Eastern Europe to the spread of communism in Latin America. Biden, a Roman Catholic from Pennsylvania coal country with an interest in foreign policy, listened intently.

But despite the thrill of meeting John Paul, there was one thing Biden refused to do: kiss the pope's ring, a customary greeting when meeting an esteemed cleric.

It was later revealed that it was Biden's mother who insisted he refrain, telling her son, "Don't you kiss his ring."

His refusal has become a hallmark of how Biden manages his faith, a throwback to a brand of mid-20th-century political Catholicism that eschews obsessive obedience to the Holy See on matters of policy.

An Irish Catholic educated by nuns in parochial schools, Biden is quick to invoke the church's social teaching on the stump.

But where Catholic morality rubs up against welfare or justice issues such as abortion and gay rights, Biden's understanding of his duty as a politician and a Catholic is clear: Decisions are to be informed by the faith he learned from nuns of his youth, not dictated by it.

"I'm as much a cultural Catholic as I am a theological Catholic," Biden wrote in his book "Promises to Keep: On Life in Politics."

"My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion. It's not so much the Bible, the beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, or the prayers I learned. It's the culture."

It's a form of faith that experts describe as profoundly Catholic in ways that resonate with millions of American believers: It offers solace in moments of anxiety or grief, can be rocked by long periods of spiritual wrestling and is more likely to be influenced by the quiet counsel of women in habits or one's own conscience than the edicts of men in mitres.

Biden's complicated relationship with the Catholic hierarchy is a slight reimagining of the Catholicism modelled by John F. Kennedy, the United States' first and only Catholic president who, like Biden, declined to kiss a pontiff's ring when he met Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1963.

Kennedy's faith became a point of contention when, as a presidential candidate in 1960, he faced resistance and outright anti-Catholic bigotry from Protestant pastors concerned that a Kennedy administration could be manipulated from Rome.

During the campaign, the Rev. Billy Graham and the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale met with others in Switzerland to discuss how "Protestants in America must be aroused in some way, or the solid block Catholic voting, plus money, will take this election."

A month after their meeting, Kennedy travelled to Houston to deliver a speech to a group of pastors in which he declared: "I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope."

Biden, like many Catholic politicians, was inspired by Kennedy's religious rules of engagement.

"When John Kennedy ran for president, I remember being so proud that he was Catholic," Biden told The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware in 2005. "But he had to prove that he wasn't ruled by his beliefs. I'm with John Kennedy on the role religion ought to play in politics."

While serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1982, he faced a decision on whether to forward to the full Senate a constitutional amendment that would allow states to pass new abortion restrictions and effectively overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark Supreme Court decision on abortion.

Biden voted for the resolution, but insisted in an impassioned speech that while he personally opposed abortion on religious grounds — "I'm probably a victim, or a product, however you want to phrase it, of my background," he explained — he remained unsure if he had "a right to impose" his religious beliefs on others.

"His separating of the secular sphere and the sacred sphere, not in his personal life but in his approach to governing, is straight out of that Kennedy lineage," Natalia Imperatori, a professor at Manhattan College who studies Catholic ecclesiology, said of Biden.

But in the years that followed, the line between public policy and private beliefs seemed to fluctuate.

Biden voted against the anti-abortion amendment when it once again appeared before the Judiciary Committee in 1983, but in 1984, he backed an amendment praising the so-called Mexico City policy, which banned the use of federal money for foreign groups that provide abortion counselling or referrals.

By 1987, advocates for abortion rights were already describing his voting record on the issue as "erratic."

Biden's compartmentalization of faith and policy has become harder to maintain in recent years, especially after conservative church leaders and lay Catholics became more vocal under John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI.

In January, Biden was reportedly denied Communion at a South Carolina Catholic church due to his abortion stance.

Shortly after Biden announced Kamala Harris, a Baptist, as his running mate, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island tweeted: "First time in a while that the Democratic ticket hasn't had a Catholic on it. Sad."

"In 1960, Americans needed reassurance that Rome wouldn't control the Catholic candidate's conscience, and would allow Kennedy to govern in the nation's interest," Imperatori said. "This year, it seems that some bishops will accept nothing less than full control of Catholic consciences, be they the candidate's, or the voters'."

The criticism has weighed on Biden.

Sister Simone Campbell, head of the Catholic social justice lobby Network, recounted a solemn moment at the signing ceremony for the Affordable Care Act in 2010 when she encountered the vice president along a rope line of dignitaries.

Biden was initially elated, enthusiastically shouting, "Barack! Here's my nun!" before his tone turned somber.

"He puts his forehead against my forehead and begins to talk about how faith matters to him and how painful it's been for him to be excluded by some within the church," Campbell recalled, noting that Biden and the Obama administration had faced fierce pushback from some Catholics over the ACA — including from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "There were hundreds of people there and we had this intimate pastoral visit."

Biden, for his part, has occasionally shown a willingness to return the clerics' barbs.

When he met with Benedict in 2011, Biden reportedly chastised the pontiff for cracking down on nuns like Campbell who had backed the ACA in defiance of the bishops.

"You are being entirely too hard on the American nuns," Biden told the pope, according to The New York Times. "Lighten up."

Meanwhile, Biden's personal connection to the faith remains a highly visible part of his political persona.

He carries a rosary at all times, fingering it during moments of anxiety or crisis. When facing brain surgery after his short-lived presidential campaign in 1988, he reportedly asked his doctors if he could keep the beads under his pillow. Earlier this year, rival Pete Buttigieg noticed Biden holding a rosary backstage before a primary debate.

And in a now-famous photo taken in the White House Situation Room as U.S. Navy Seals raided the compound of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, Biden's hands can be seen tucked beneath the table, reportedly thumbing his prayer beads.

"In order to pray your rosary in the Situation Room," said John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, "you have to have a rosary in your pocket. That's every day — not just when you're going after bin Laden."

These days, Biden's rosary is also a symbol of the role faith plays in grief: He carries one that once belonged to his son Beau, who died of a brain tumour in 2015.

Biden suggested to a group of Catholics he invited to his home in 2015 that the emotional toll of Beau's death made it unlikely he would run for president in 2016. He explained that his wife had noticed a change in his posture because his "body was in mourning."

"At that point, he pulls out his rosary beads as he often does," said Campbell, who was at the meeting. "(There was) comfort for him in knowing the promise of Jesus, in the gospel, and in what we believe."

Biden, who also lost his first wife and a child in an automobile accident shortly after being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, talked about Beau's death with Francis when the pontiff met with Biden's extended family at the end of his 2015 U.S. visit.

Biden later said the meeting with the pope "provided us with more comfort that even he, I think, will understand."

When the two met again privately in St. Peter's Basilica a year later during a Vatican conference on cancer, Ken Hackett, then ambassador to the Vatican, caught snippets of Francis offering "moving prayers and concerns about the vice president's loss of a child."

"Your religion is complicated, but your faith is something that really motivates and moves you every day — and gives you the strength to carry on," Hackett said.

But it's the nuns and rank-and-file Catholics, not popes, whom Biden most often relies on for religious counsel, once telling Campbell that it is "nuns and Jesuits who keep me Catholic."

It's a preference shared by many of his fellow faithful: In opinion polls, U.S. Catholics show significantly higher support for nuns than for bishops.

Catholics are also more likely to side with Biden on issues of abortion and sexuality than with the church hierarchy.

According to a recent RealClear Opinion Research poll, 53% of Catholics don't agree with the church that abortion is "intrinsically evil," and 51% say it should be legal in all or most cases. A 2019 Pew Research poll found that a sizable majority of Catholics — 61% — approve of same-sex marriage.

There is also broad agreement where Biden's beliefs and church teachings overlap.

Recent surveys show that most Catholics oppose President Donald Trump's border wall and believe climate change is not only caused by humans but is one of the major issues facing the world.

The real question come November may be whether Biden can win over white Catholics like himself, who skew more conservative than Latino Catholics.

Abortion remains a thorny issue for the group (Carr, for instance, made clear that he was "disappointed" with Biden's current abortion stance), and a Pew Research survey conducted in late July found that 59% of white Catholics currently either support or lean toward Trump — 1 percentage point lower than the president's 2016 share.

By contrast, only 40% of white Catholics said they support or are leaning toward voting for Biden — far from a majority, but roughly the same percentage Obama secured when he won reelection in 2012.

It's a divided Catholic vote that has changed quite a bit since 1960, when Kennedy claimed somewhere between 70% and 83% of the group.

Things have changed a bit in the church, too.

For one thing, ring-kissing has largely gone out of style, with Francis sometimes recoiling from parishioners who attempt the ritual.

Yet Biden and his campaign appear to be betting that his emotive, localized faith will prove more durable among American churchgoers.

In a recent video released by the Democratic National Committee showcasing Biden's 2016 meeting with Francis, the editors didn't focus on the grandeur of mingling with the bishop of Rome. Instead, they focused on a group of habited nuns that Biden bumped into when exiting St. Peter's Basilica.

Speaking over images of the smiling nuns, Biden comments that Catholicism calls on believers to be "our brother's keeper."

"Being raised Catholic and being educated by the nuns — that's what those lovely women I'm talking to symbolize to me," he said.

• Jack Jenkins
• First published in RNS. Reproduced with permission.
• The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of CathNews.

He said the sin exists among those who say they fight for all human life - yet it doesn't fit with the belief system that defends human life at all stages.

"We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life," Francis said.

"Today, I join ... in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism."

Generally, Floyd's murder and the subsequent global protests denouncing racism and police brutality might have drawn a muted diplomatic response from the Vatican. But this is a U.S. election year.

The intensity and consistency of the Vatican's reaction suggests that, from the pope on down, the Vatican is seeking to encourage anti-racism protesters, say a number of commentators.

At the same time, the Vatican is making a clear statement about where American Catholics should stand ahead of President Donald Trump's bid for a second term this November.

As an example, Francis rang to praise Texan Bishop Mark Seitz who took the knee at an anti-racism protest last week.

"That's what our Catholic Christian faith is all about: It's about the fact that God has loved humanity enough — not just one group... that he chose to become one of us," Seitz said.

"When it comes to racism, clearly this is a sin that causes division, and it is against the will of God."

Anthea Butler of Yale Divinity School said Francis "wants to send a very clear message to these conservative Catholics here who are pro-Trumpers that, ‘Listen, this is just as much of an issue as abortion is'".

In another sign of his push for unity among Catholics in America, Francis quoted the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) calls for nonviolent protests.

Archbishop José Gomez, who is the USCCB president had both condemned Floyd's "senseless and brutal" death and said the violence that occurred in the first days of protests was not the right way to address it.

"The violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost," Gomez's said. Francis echoed these words.

The pope's comments on protests against police violence and racism in America occurred as Trump's support among Catholic Americans is slipping.

A Pew Research poll conducted in late April and early May shows Trump's support among white Catholics was on the decline because of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

A poll published by the Public Religion Research Institute last week also showed Catholic support further declined in the days following Floyd's death.

Source

• Newsweek
• AP News
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

The ongoing coronavirus epidemic is in part responsible, having reshaped voters' worries and expectations, but the role played by religion in Biden's resurrection should not be overlooked.

Indeed, Biden's comeback began in South Carolina, where his win gave much-needed momentum for Super Tuesday.

In that state, black voters make up a majority of the Democratic electorate.

So it is no surprise that all the Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, flocked to African-American churches before the primary.

Black Americans, who are largely Democrats and older and less liberal, are the most religious group: 83% say they believe in God (compared with 61% of whites).

They are also more likely to attend church and pray.

Greater presence of religion in American life

Even outside the African American community, the American people as a whole continue to stand out for their religiosity: In other words, Americans are still far more religious than people in any other wealthy nation.

A match between a secular socialist and a centrist Catholic.

Of all of the presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders is probably the least religious. He identifies himself as both Jewish and secular, does not participate in any organized religion and defends the separation of church and state.

Sanders has a political vision of religion. He connects religious beliefs in general, and his Jewish heritage in particular, to social and economic justice. He often praises Pope Francis, and calls him a socialist.

But the rise and success of identity politics suggests that race or religion may matter more than economic justice.

Sharing faith, making connections

Joe Biden's record on race may be great, but he was vice president to the first black president, Barack Obama. Contrary to Sanders, he has not been talking about religion but rather about his faith.

And he has done so not in political terms but in emotional and personal terms.

For instance, in a town hall meeting in South Carolina, he was able to connect with an African American pastor whose wife was killed by a white supremacist by sharing personal tragedy: the loss of his own wife and daughter in 1972 and his son in 2015.

By building an empathetic bond with voters, he also avoids taking pointed positions on controversial issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

This seems to be working: he is the only Democratic candidate considered "rather religious" by more than half of American adults (55 percent).

While expressing genuine grief, he has turned his sorrow and pain into political assets, having no qualms about using them in this campaign ad, for example, where he says almost word for word what he expressed in the CNN town hall interview with the pastor.

He won 65% of the most religious black voters in South Carolina as well as a good size of the religious white voters (43% compared to 16% for Buttigieg and 14% for Sanders).

Religion in Congress

If you have doubts about the relevance of religion in politics in the United States, just look at the US governing bodies. The 116th American Congress is more diversified on the religious level, but remains overwhelmingly Christian (88% against 71% of the adult American population).

Only one elected representative, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (Democrat of Arizona), claims to be nonreligious and no member describes themselves as an atheist. Even someone as far to the left as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mentions her Catholic faith in Congress and even quotes the Bible on social networks.

Religion in the White House

Religiosity is even more visible in the White House. US presidents have been invoking faith and God ever since George Washington expressed his "fervent pleas to this Almighty Being who rules the universe" in his 1789 inaugural address.

Moreover, scholars observe that the use of religious language and even explicit references to God have increased in presidential rhetoric since the 1980s.

For example, David Domke and Kevin Coe write that iterations of the phrase "God bless America," the most explicit statement linking God and country, are now expected in all major speeches, although they were almost entirely absent prior to Ronald Reagan.

According to a recent study by semantic scholar Ceri Hughes, this trend seems to be even more pronounced with Donald Trump.

Although he claims to be a Presbyterian Protestant, there is ample evidence, as historian John Fea has shown, to suggest that the current tenant of the White House is the least religious president of the modern era. Yet he invokes religion the most, and the political strategy is obvious: after all, in 2016, 81% of white Evangelicals voted for Trump. His promise: to defend them in the culture wars, especially on the subjects of abortion, LGBTQ rights and school prayer.

Beyond the particular case of Donald Trump, all presidents of the modern era have identified as Protestant Christians, with the notable exception of John Kennedy whose Catholicism proved to be a campaign issue for him. No person of the Jewish faith has received a presidential nomination from a major party (Joseph Lieberman received only the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 2000), and the Mormon affiliation of Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate in 2008, was not without controversy.

A changing religious landscape

The ever-increasing presence of religious rhetoric in political discourse is both the reason for and the consequence of the politicization of religion, particularly of white Evangelicals, since the 1970s.

This politicization has highlighted the racial divide that exists in the United States. According to the PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute), a non-profit, non-partisan organization, "no religious group is more closely linked to the Republican Party than white Evangelical Protestants."

The label "evangelical," however, is a complex one. It is a trans-denominational movement mostly within Protestant Christianity based on a set of personal core beliefs:

• The Bible at the centre of faith
  The atonement for sins through Jesus' death on the cross.
  Personal conversion and salvation.
  The sharing of the gospel, from which this movement takes its name.

But not all evangelicals are white and conservative. There is a small proportion of non-white Evangelicals (about 25%) as well as some white Evangelicals who are progressive (about 15 percent) and tend to vote for Democrats.

Nevertheless, statistics show a slow erosion in the number of Americans who identify as Evangelical Protestants__ since the 1990s, particularly in the younger generations. Similarly, the number of Catholics has slowly declined, while the number of historic Mainline Protestants has virtually collapsed.

The trend most discussed by academics (here, here, or here) is the increase in the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion, namely the nones (not affiliated with a religion). They are now at least as numerous as evangelicals, if not more. But as researcher Lauric Henneton notes, nones have in common only that they do not want to be counted as belonging to a religious group or established traditions. It says nothing about their actual beliefs.

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey shows that atheists and agnostics are on the rise, but still account for less than a third of nones, with the rest identifying themselves as "nothing special." Unsurprisingly, Bernie Sanders is a favourite among the nones.

Religion and younger voters

Younger generations are increasingly unaffiliated with a religion or a church, but they are also the generations least likely to vote which reduces their impact on the elections.

Even if they voted more, as they did in 2018, America's institutional political structure amplifies the power of whiter, more rural, more Christian voters.

Religion is thus likely to continue to play a major role in US elections for years to come.

And with the help of what Katherine Stewart calls the "Christian nationalist machine," Donald Trump will certainly make religious identity a central element of his campaign.

• Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy Assistant lecturer, Université Paris Nanterre - Université Paris Lumières
• The Conversation. Republished with permission.

For both of them Tuesday night, their opposing positions came down to one word: Responsibility.

A member of the audience, Barry, asked the same question of both candidates. "What do you think is the biggest misrepresentation that the American people have about you as a man or a candidate?" Read more

Sources

• Sally Quinn in The Washington Post
• Image: The Guardian

Sally Quinn is a Washington Post journalist and author of several books.