Donald Trump’s antics have left conservative Catholic leaders who backed the Republicans in a jam. Can a new generation of churchmen make peace with the Democrats?

There is an ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” The 2016 presidential campaign, now entering its final two weeks, has been very, very interesting. While all prognosticators  point to a victory for Hillary Clinton, no one is exactly sure what the political landscape will look like after this ugly, bruising battle.

The campaign has been dominated by personalities, much to the chagrin of those who care about important issues like immigration or climate change. Each week seems to bring more women alleging that the Republican Donald Trump groped them – and more evidence that Clinton was less than candid about her handling of classified information.

There is no moral equivalence between the two, to be sure. The video of Trump bragging about using his power to assault women, and specifically noting twice that a particular woman was married, making the attempted conquest all the more desirable, contradicted basic moral norms in a way that nothing any previous presidential candidate had done. The video joined a long list of unprecedented things that Trump has said or done, making his character more of an issue than his proposals.