Biden's Catholicism: a roundup -- UPDATED

As you might expect, there's a lot of attention now being focused on Joe Biden's religion.

You can get a good sampling of ideas below:

David Gibson has his thoughts over at his Pontifications blog. He points out the interesting fact that his pro-choice rating from NARAL is so low, they chose not to endorse him.

Meanwhile, the Reuters political blog says it looks like Biden could help woo the increasingly crucial Catholic swing vote.

Michael Paulson has some thoughts of his own over Articles of Faith, the Boston Globe religion blog.

Steve Waldman has weighed in over at Huffington Post.

Get Religion, as always, takes a fairly even-handed look at the subject of Biden and religion, and looks at it through the lens of the media.

An interesting perspective is laid out at Catholic Culture, noting that neither party is covering itself in glory on the issue of Roe v. Wade.

And at America's blog, In All Things, Michael Sean Winters adds this:

Unlike some pro-choice Catholics who have gotten into trouble with their bishops, Biden does not even have a bishop right now. Wilmington’s new bishop, W. Francis Malooly, will be installed September 8th. Malooly, a native of Baltimore, rose in the ranks under the tutelage of two moderate bishops, Archbishop William Borders and Cardinal William Keeler, neither of whom joined their more conservative confreres in the effort to deny communion to pro-choice politicians. Malooly has never run his own show, as he is about to do in Wilmington, but it is doubtful he will provoke a confrontation with Biden given his mentors, both of whom are living and able to offer counsel.

{snip}

It is doubtful Biden was chosen because of his Catholicism. And it is also doubtful that his Catholicism lends his surrogacy greater weight. But, insofar as his Catholicism has endowed him with a belief in the necessity of solidarity, compassion, and human dignity in our politics, Biden embodies a more nuanced, complicated view of how religion and politics can mix within one candidate. And recognizing such complicatedness is a good thing for both Church and State.

That's a start. I'll add more as I come across them ...

UPDATE: The AP has just posted an item which quotes Denver's Archbishop Chaput, who told the AP that Biden should refrain from receiving communion:

Chaput, one of the nation's most outspoken bishops on Catholic political responsibility, said Catholics who disagree with the church on "serious, sanctity of life issues" separate themselves from communion with the church and should not present themselves for the Eucharist.

Biden "has admirable qualities to his public service," Chaput said in his statement. "But his record of support for so-called abortion 'rights,' while mixed at times, is seriously wrong. I certainly presume his good will and integrity — and I presume that his integrity will lead him to refrain from presenting himself for Communion, if he supports a false 'right' to abortion."

Chaput added that he looks forward to speaking with Biden privately.

Other Catholics were even more forceful in their criticism. The Catholic advocacy group Fidelis called the choice of Biden a "slap in the face" to Catholic voters and predicted the Communion question will hover over Biden at each campaign stop.

George Weigel, a Pope John Paul II biographer and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said: "I don't think it's a happy day for Catholics when a man who is literally dead wrong on what the Catholic leadership of the United States has said for over three decades is the most important issue of social justice in our country is named to a national ticket and attempts to present himself as an intellectually serious and coherent Catholic."

UPDATE II: I see there's also a blog that's been set up called Catholics Against Joe Biden. And Deacon Keith Fournier has declared that Biden's selection means that "the battle for life is engaged."