Denver, Colo., Aug 25, 2008 / 19:21 pm
Senator Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Vice President, is a Catholic who openly defends his faith, but who supports Roe v. Wade and legalized abortion. At the Democratic National Convention, Democratic delegates of all stripes—pro-life, pro-legalized abortion, Catholic, and non-Catholic—appear to be happy with Obama’s choice of running mate.
All of the approximately 25 delegates and alternates interviewed by Catholic News Agency expressed support—sometimes enthusiasm—about Biden as a running mate. His faith, and his abortion stance seemed to play almost no role in their views of him.
But Biden is not shy about his faith. In an April 2006 episode of the HBO talk show Real Time, Bill Maher was assailing political figures for being too overtly religious, when Biden interrupted to relate a conversation he once had with a Democratic colleague. Biden told this fellow senator that his mother dedicates a rosary every Sunday to her deceased brother. “And he looked at me and said, ‘I think that’s quaint.’ And I said, ‘…were we not senators, I’d rip your goddamn Adam’s apple out, because who the hell are you to look at my mother and say it’s “quaint”?’ We have too many elites in our party who look down their nose on people of faith.”
Biden on another occasion showed willingness to use violence in defense of his faith. In 2005, the Cincinnati Enquirer quoted him as saying, “The next Republican that tells me I’m not religious, I’m going to shove my rosary beads down their throat.”