Faggioli: Pope Francis loses dialogue partner with Biden's departure

After the assassination attempt on the Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump, things happened in quick succession: two days later, he nominated J.D. Vance, a convert to Catholicism who was one of his biggest critics just a few years ago, as his vice-presidential candidate. A few days later, the Democratic presidential candidate, incumbent President Joe Biden, withdrew from the race. His successor is to be Vice President Kamala Harris. In an interview with katholisch.de, Massimo Faggioli, Professor at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University in Philadelphia, explains how Catholics in the country view the current events and how the Catholic bishops are reacting to them.

Question: Mr Faggioli, the situation in the USA has come to a head in recent weeks: first there was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Then Joe Biden withdrew from the race for the presidential candidacy, meaning that Kamala Harris will probably succeed him. What do Catholics in the USA say about this?

Faggioli: Catholics in this country have been politically divided since the late 1970s, especially on the "life issues", not only between the two political parties, but also between different ethnic identities and geographical areas. The race has now changed, it will be interesting to see how the two candidates will appeal to the Catholic electorate, which has historically played a crucial role in key states. It will be a very different race than 2020, when one of the two candidates was a leading Catholic in US politics. If Kamala Harris becomes the Democratic nominee, it will be interesting to see who she chooses as her running mate: from which state, with which resume and ideological profile, with which religious background.

Question: How do the US bishops view the current political situation in their country?

Faggioli: The US bishops are also politically divided. A significant number of them sympathised with Trump and the Republican Party in 2016 and 2020 because of their anti-abortion stance. But in the last two years, Republicans have realised that a strict anti-abortion doctrine, made possible by the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling, is a political liability, meaning they could lose elections. Today, Trump and the Republican Party are less anti-abortion than they have been in the last 45 years. The Catholic pro-life movement feels let down, as do some bishops. But if Kamala Harris becomes the Democratic nominee against Trump, the abortion issue will come more to the fore because she is a woman and has been very vocal on the issue: This could breathe new life into religion in the election campaign and convince many Catholic bishops again that Trump is the only viable candidate.

Question: Let's take a step back to the alleged Trump assassination: what do you say to this as a Catholic theologian?

Faggioli: The assassination of a presidential candidate or a president has not happened in the history of the United States for a long time. But political violence is part of the history of this country, and there is a history of political assassinations. But now it's also a consequence of the fact that we live in a country where gun proliferation has reached unimaginable levels. I say this as a parent and as a university professor: the fear of gun rampages has become commonplace.

Question: What about Trump's religious rhetoric after the attack, for example that God was at his side?

Faggioli: That's not surprising coming from a person who survived the attack. It is more worrying when it comes from the leaders of a political party. Some have rightly pointed out that this logic is not consistent with the fact that innocent bystanders were killed and injured on 13 July, or with the fact that there are thousands of innocent victims of guns in America every year.

Question: With Biden dropping out of the presidential race, such moments of religious rhetoric could become more frequent. But what does Biden's withdrawal mean for Catholics in the USA and for Pope Francis?

Faggioli: It is the end of an era: Biden was the second Catholic to hold a leading role in the USA. The future of political Catholicism in the USA on the left and progressive side is now uncertain. On the right, the prevalence of anti-liberal voices or even strict adherents to Catholic tradition is quite clear among the younger generations. With Biden's departure, Pope Francis loses an interlocutor, even considering how the presidential race will unfold on the Democratic ticket and how it has already changed with Trump's choice of J.D. Vance.

Question: Keyword change: Theologian Marcello Neri, visiting professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, has in a recently published article Biden's decision as a symbolic end to the era of American Catholicism that was inspired and driven by the Second Vatican Council. Would you agree with that?

Faggioli: It is certainly the end of an era, but for reasons deeper than the absence of a generation of Catholic politicians on the left side of the political spectrum. There is a more prominent religious presence in the Republican Party (though also declining due to secularisation) that tends to ideologically distort religion within a narrow thematic framework, but something similar could be said for the liberal-progressive side, which sometimes emphasises exclusively social justice Catholicism. Secondly, it is true that militant and conservative Catholicism in the US has largely cut its ties with the Second Vatican Council, but this is not just an American problem: what is happening in the US could be a good opportunity to examine the Catholic Church in Europe as well. With the resignation of a "Vatican II Catholic" like Joe Biden and the rise of a conservative "cultural Catholicism", something is happening that can also be seen in Italian politics, for example.

Question: So does Donald Trump have a good chance of winning votes from the Catholic camp, especially with his Catholic Vice President J.D. Vance?

Faggioli: I recently wrote an article about Vance's Catholicism for the French newspaper "La Croix". In short, he is a recent convert to Catholicism (a fairly common phenomenon in the US) and represents an anti-liberal political Catholicism that is now firmly rooted in America's clerical and intellectual elites. He has very clear views on social issues (e.g. against unmarried women without children), he is a culture warrior, but he will also have to follow Trump's course in order to reach the Catholic electorate. The election could backfire for the Republicans. However, an aggressive campaign by Harris on social issues (especially abortion) could change that.

Question: Does this mean that Trump is hoping to reach the Catholic electorate with Vance's appointment?

Faggioli: American Catholicism is no longer just a haven for conservative ideologues, as it was since the 1990s and until a few years ago. It has become a brand that can be bought. It is not clear to what extent Vance is personally interested in appropriating this brand and being identified with it, as this depends on the political imperatives that Donald Trump sets out. Vance's nomination by Trump marks "the anointing of a young vice president and heir apparent", as his friend Ross Douthat, a columnist for the New York Times and also a convert to Catholicism, puts it. Should he be elected together with Donald Trump, Vance could not only govern the country, but also help to change the Catholic Church in the USA. It remains to be seen how Catholic voters, especially women, will react to Vance's strong views on social issues and women's rights.

Question: What would Trump's re-election mean for the Catholic Church?

Faggioli: It would mean the risk of a democratic regression, a deterioration of American democracy; the risk of some lobbies imposing a theocratic agenda and identifying political Catholicism with integralism. Above all, it could mean that the vice president chosen by Trump, the Catholic Vance, could be his heir - between 2025 and 2028 or after 2028 - but we know that it is very dangerous to be very close to the emperor at court, because the emperor could quickly change his mind and choose another heir.

Question: Would the bishops welcome Trump's re-election?

Faggioli: They would welcome the Republicans' opposition to "gender ideology" and "wokeism". But they would try to win the Republican Party back on the abortion issue, which Trump and the Republicans will only do if it is politically expedient. I think most Catholic bishops are aware of this. In a sense, they need to start from scratch in creating a culture of life and return to Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's concept of a "consistent ethic of life," whereby issues such as abortion, capital punishment, militarism, euthanasia, social and economic injustice require a consistent application of moral principles. However, this was frowned upon by conservative Catholics at the time.