What Kind of Catholic Would President Biden Be?

The Roman Catholic factor is becoming a paradoxical issue in the discussion about the United States presidential election, which takes place this year on Nov. 3. Referencing certain opinion polls, some experts are arguing that it will not play a significant role in these elections, as the Catholic electorate is just as divided as the entire country. Indeed, Pew Research Center’s last survey shows that 59 percent of white Catholics are prepared to vote for the sitting U.S. president, Donald Trump, and 40 percent showed support for his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden. Whereas 65 percent of Latin American Catholics support Biden and only 33 percent have come out in favor of Trump. With this is mind, other experts have drawn attention to the Democratic candidates’ faith. “Joe Biden is running the most overtly religious campaign since Jimmy Carter in 1976,” noted The Washington Post.

It’s possible that they’re all right and the Catholic factor will not play an important role at the time of voting, but American domestic and foreign policy will depend on who wins the election. If we are talking about Trump, then his relationship with the Catholics will primarily be reflected in his domestic agenda. In contrast to his predecessor, Barack Obama, the president has turned to face the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, conservative Catholic organizations and media channels covering issues affecting national religious life. Trump openly supports the pro-life movement, has reversed previous decisions in favor of facilitating and financing abortions, and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Roman Catholic Church and its organizations have been using money given to them from state funds. You could say that, in general, by voicing reservations about disagreeing with the president on a number of issues, the American Roman Catholic episcopate, is inclined to support him.

However, in terms of foreign policy, the Trump administration has done very little for the Catholics. Perhaps the most notable move was the allocation of humanitarian aid packages to Iraqi Christians, who are still unable to return to their homes after being forced out by jihadis. Apart from this, the White House’s tough fight with migrants has affected those Middle Eastern Christians who have relocated or were wanting to relocate to the U.S.; they have become “undesirable guests.” The International Religious Freedom Alliance, which was created last year as part of Vice President Mike Pence’s initiative, spends the majority of its time criticizing Iran and China, the latter being accused of persecuting Uighur Muslims. The Roman Bishops of the Holy Land have a negative view of the White House policy on the Palestine-Israel conflict. It is really only the American white evangelicals who approve of the Trump administration’s actions in this regard.

Finally, Washington’s course of action toward Turkey is controversial from the Catholic point of view. When the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed an executive order for the Hagia Sophia to be converted into a mosque, the head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Archbishop Elpidophoros, asked Trump and Pence to protect the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Bartholomew. A Greek publication noted back then that the “U.S. President has expressed his strong dissatisfaction with a decision made by [the] Turkish President[‘s] decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia into a mosque” and that he had promised the archbishop that he would “proceed immediately with the necessary interventions.” One month later, however, Erdogan ordered for the official status of the Kariye Camii Museum in Istanbul to also be reconverted to a mosque. As the Italian Catholic news portal Asia News reported, the issue is that Trump “praised Erdogan’s ‘leadership.’”

It’s possible that Trump’s action, or lack thereof, towards Turkey is the reason that, at the recent Democratic National Convention, Archbishop Elpidophoros urged people to support Biden in the upcoming elections. So, what can the Catholics expect in the event of a Democratic victory? Biden will have to deal with conservative American Catholics’ refusal to accept the Democratic Party’s position on facilitating and financing abortions both in the U.S. (in part at the expense of the Catholic voters) and abroad. But he could play the religious card in his foreign policy, if he doesn’t start demolishing Trump’s platforms for protecting religious freedom across the world and instead weaves a whole row of “Democratic reforms” in the countries that Washington deals with together with a respect for the rights of believers. In the context of the Middle East, this could work in favor of the Christians being persecuted in the region.