Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Thursday scoffed at dismissals of the sincerity of his Catholic faith during the Republican National Convention, calling the remarks "preposterous."
Wednesday's roster of convention spreakers featured several Roman Catholics, including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan – who offered an opening prayer. It also had former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, who called Biden and Democrats who claim to be Catholics as "Catholics in name only" over their position to support abortion.
"I think it's kind of preposterous to a guy who hardly ever darkens the door of a church," Biden told MSNBC in a reference to President Donald Trump.
Biden claimed, as he has previously, that his private beliefs are different from his political positions.
"My private beliefs relative to how I would deal with the church doctrine is different than my imposing that doctrine on every other person in the world — equally decent Christians and Jews and Muslims and Buddhists, etc.," he said.
"But the point of the matter is I'm a practicing Catholic. I don't proselytize about it, I never miss mass," he added. "It's part of who I am. It's what gets me through the really difficult times in my life, and I believe it very strongly."
Biden was denied Holy Communion at Mass last October by Rev. Robert E. Morey of St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina, an incident the former vice president refused to comment about.
Catholics are expected to be "in a state of grace" to receive Holy Communion.
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