Democrat nominee Joe Biden's campaign is highlighting his connections with the Catholic faith, including through a series of television ads aimed at attracting voters from the faith who are being seen as a decisive factor in several battleground states.
Various ads have been released spotlighting Biden's faith, including showing him with Pope Francis or reading from a pulpit, and a radio ad includes a parishioner from the former vice president's church talking about how he regularly attends Mass on Sundays, reports The Washington Post.
If Biden is elected, he will be the nation's second Catholic president, with late President John F. Kennedy being the first.
President Donald Trump and his allies have sought to show Democrats as being anti-Catholic after some senators criticized Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett's background.
Biden is known to carry a rosary with him and in his youth aspired to become a priest, notes the Post, and his advisers say that is a way for him to connect with white, working-class voters in Midwestern states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and with Hispanic Catholics in Sun Belt states like Arizona and Florida.
Trump, however, has accused Biden of wanting to "hurt the Bible, hurt God," and former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz has derided Biden as being a "Catholic in name only."
Republicans have also claimed Democrats' criticisms of Barrett are based on attacks on her Catholic faith, and Trump has vowed to "make sure these attacks stop."
Biden, however, agreed on Monday that he thinks Barrett's religion should be off limits during her confirmation hearings.
Biden does support abortion rights, a divisive issue with Catholics. Still, a Pew Research Center survey in 2019 shows 56% of Catholics do support the right to abortion in most or even all cases. However, there are some bishops who have not allowed Biden to take Communion and Catholic schools that would not allow him to speak because of his stance.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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