Editor, The News:

Over the last 50 years, no Democrat has won the White House without the support of Rust Belt Catholics.

Barack Obama has now selected Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate.

Biden was born in Pennsylvania and is nominally a Roman Catholic. Obama hopes his selection will appeal to Catholics and bring this demographic back to the party.

The rift between Obama and Catholics is self-evident. Catholics recognize at least five “non-negotiable” issues that are, by nature, intrinsically evil. They include abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual “marriage.”

The church opposes all five, while Obama and Biden have been among their most vigorous supporters.

Biden belongs to the political cabal that distinguishes between personal and public beliefs. This artifice enables him to consistently vote against the tenets of his own religion.

Obama favors partial-birth abortion and fought against caring for babies born alive after botched abortions. Both Obama and Biden support the so-called “right to die,” favor the use of human fetuses for experimentation and would not differentiate between marriage and homosexual relationships.

Their efforts have ignominiously awarded them a 100 percent record from Planned Parenthood and a zero percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee.

Voters must obviously select candidates based on a properly formed conscience — on what is right and what is wrong. John Paul II said, “(S)ociety must learn to embrace once more the great gift of life, to cherish it, to protect it and to defend it against the culture of death.”

He understood that moral truths can be known by reason and that such truths are of grave concern to public policy.

No Christian may in good conscience vote for a candidate who endorses policies contrary to moral truths or human dignity.

James R. Williams

New Wilmington