Joe Biden May be USA's First Catholic Vice President.
Some of the comments on the selection:
AP reports -- When Joe Biden underwent brain surgery for a life-threatening aneurysm in 1988, he asked doctors whether he could tuck his rosary beads under his pillow. Barack Obama's running mate is the son of working-class Irish Catholics, a career politician educated at a Catholic prep school who briefly considered the priesthood.
He has turned to his faith to weather personal tragedy — including the deaths of his wife and young daughter in a 1972 traffic accident — and shape his political worldview. Biden attends Mass weekly and didn't miss it on Sunday, either, attending services and taking Communion at St. Joseph on the Brandywine near his home in Greenville, Del.
Catholics United praised Biden's advocacy on issues such as genocide, universal health care and education
Chicago Sum Times: For those who have bought in to the smears of Obama being an elitist and that’s that, Biden’s Catholic working-class roots might cause them to reconsider.
Michigan Political analyist Craig Ruff: "He is Roman Catholic and there could be some number of Michigan Catholic voters who would vote the Obama ticket because of his running mate."
Reuters-- Biden, originally from the battleground state of Pennsylvania, will bring not only foreign policy expertise to the ticket — he chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — but strong working-class roots and his Catholic faith.Catholics had strongly supported Hillary Clinton in her failed bid for the Democratic nomination and a number of polls have shown a fairly close race among Catholics with Obama leading nationally by a small margin. Conservative Catholics tend to line up with evangelicals on issues like abortion but there are also many liberal Catholics in America who like the Democratic Party on economic issues.
Monsignor William Kerr -- "Joe Biden is one of the most sincere Catholics I've known in my 40 years as a priest."
Dr. Patrick Whelan -- "Joe Biden has lived out the tenets of his Catholic faith throughout his career -- speaking out tirelessly on behalf of the poor and the exploited, encouraging peace and reconstruction in the most despairing corners of the world, and promoting personal responsibility here in the US. He is a public servant who truly believes in the common good."
From the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life -- Biden and his wife, Jill, attend St. Patrick Church, part of the Diocese of Wilmington; he nominated St. Patrick's former priest, the Rev. James Trainor, to serve as a guest chaplain in the Senate in 2001. Biden had an hour-long private audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1980 on the subject of Poland's position in the former Communist bloc. Biden met Pope John Paul II three more times. He attended the pope's 2005 funeral and told The News Journal that the presence of religious leaders from other traditions made the event "much more meaningful." When the Diocese of Wilmington's bishop, Michael Saltarelli, came under pressure in 2004 and 2005 to deny communion to Biden and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, the bishop refused.
Randall Terry -- "Obama jumped into political and religious quicksand by picking Biden; Catholic Bishops and voters will determine whether the Obama/Biden ticket sinks into political oblivion. "
15 comments:
The overnight polls show that Biden has pushed Catholics from 50/50 to a slight edge for Obama. Looks like Biden is being well recieved by Catholics.
Two undecided voters in my parish are now for Obama-Biden. Good pick!
I guess if you want to call Biden Catholic that is up to you.
excellent pick. I think many undecided Catholics and working class Americans will move towards the ticket.
Biden will help in PA, OH, MI, and maybe in NH. Obama still needs to reach out in the West.
Biden is a name only Catholic. He is a Catholic traitor
>>Catholics United praised Biden's advocacy on issues such as genocide, universal health care and education
Notice they didn't include the right to life.
Of course, Biden is not as bad as Obama, who is to the left of even NARAL on abortion issues, having voted against medical care for the survivors of abortion. Biden rates only 75% with NARAL.
Philothea
I thought Obama was for the working class little guy, why does he need Joe Biden to pull in those voters?
Oughta tell you something.
Obama and his wife earned over $4 million last year (mostly through his book) yet his brother continues to live on $1/day, in a hut in Kenya.
Guess his brother isn't one of the working class little guys, and so is beneath his half-brother's attention?
Oh, but he's poor, and he's even an international poor person! Obama's brother is one of those people that Obama wants to legislate sending our tax dollars to! So Obama really in concerned about him... Not!!!!
Philothea
>>Catholics United praised Biden's advocacy on issues such as genocide, universal health care and education
But not for his stance on abortion, where NARAL rates him at 75%.
Philothea
Philothea,
Barack Obama's father abandoned him and his mother when Barack was young. Ke left the country for Kenya where he entered multiple relationships, fathering children by wives and girlfriends and denying Barack Jr. any meaningful relationship or even knowledge of them.
This is the tragedy of maritial infidelity. Barack Obama Jr. was a victim of this.
Much different from your candidate, who carried on an adulterous affair while married to Carol McCain, and then ran away from his wife and children to shack up with a rich beer heiress.
It is too bad you blame the victims of infidelity and defend those who destroy families.
Kurt,
Obama's brothers and sisters are equally victims of their father's actions. Obama met with his half-siblings several years ago in Kenya, including the one living in such poverty.
I just find it ironic that a man who wants to give away $845 billion of our tax dollars to those in poverty in other nations can't give his own relatives a hand. And that is something that Obama has as an on-going situation.
McCain has publically admitted that the end of his marriage was his biggest mistake.
Philothea
Philothea,
I think your defense of adultery is unbecoming of a Catholic lady.
And I salute Obama for wanting to help the less fortunate across the globe. But no, I don't think it is proper to use the power of his office to direct action towards his family members, as Sarah Palin did by trying to get her sister's ex-husband fired from his government job.
I see that you all are picking and choosing which of my comments to put on your board, and only putting the ones which you can twist the meaning of to your benefit.
I am sure that you are doing the same to others.
I see that about Democrats. Very few of them will engage in open debate: check out the rules for being a member of the Democratic Underground.
The more I see what you all write here, and the more i see how you all behave, the more sick I feel for our nation.
I won't be writing any more comments because of your scurrilous use of them. I will spend that time praying for you and Katherine, and for our country.
I am sure you are now breathing a sigh of relief, another one off your board, and maybe even planning to tell your friends how pro-lifers "can;t take the heat," but you will know that is a lie.
Philothea
In our parish we have spent the last few Sundays being educated on how to vote as a Michigan Catholic.
I find it so hard to continue attending church when every four years the church becomes a political stage.
I have become a closet Democrat. There is little or no tolerance on anyone who does not tow the party line.
This year I truly tried to listen openly to the conservative Catholic point of view, and find good reason to vote for McCain, and then I remembered hearing the same reasons to vote for Bush twice before. I have never been so ashamed to be an American as with this man as president. (NO MATTER WHAT HIS STAND WAS ON ABORITION!) Bush is living proof of why single issue politics is SO wrong.
Think about it before you vote.
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