Could the former American Vice President Joe Biden have been nominated as the Democratic candidate for November’s election for the next President of the United States if he had promised to make unyielding opposition to abortion his number one priority? The answer is obviously no. Yet the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops insists that this is the only option for any Catholic seeking public office. Mr Biden has been criticised within the Catholic community in the US – vitriolically by supporters of Donald Trump – for adopting what might be called a nuanced pro-choice position on this vexatious issue, which has including saying he wants the Supreme Court judgement in Roe v Wade turned into statute law by federal legislation.

Mr Biden has said repeatedly that he personally opposes abortion but does not wish to see his personal views imposed on those who do not agree with him. That is a very common position for Catholic legislators to take, but it sits very awkwardly with church teaching. Dignitatis Humanae, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom notwithstanding, the Church’s pronouncements on the issue, especially in Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae of 1995, have not hesitated to say that the moral law applies to everyone whether they agree with it or not, and “Thou shalt not kill” rules out all deliberate interruptions of a pregnancy by anybody for any reason at any stage.